Felipa
Feminine · “fond of horses”
English never really took up a feminine of Philip. Philippa exists but has always been rare and slightly bookish, and no American generation has adopted it. Spanish has no such hesitation: Felipa is a perfectly ordinary name, formed the way Spanish forms every feminine, and used without anyone finding it remarkable.
How old is the name Felipa?
Felipa first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Felipa alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 1,000 people named Felipa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Felipa most popular?
Felipa peaked in 1919, reaching #925 nationally. See the whole 1919 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Philippos to Felipa
The story of Felipa
The masculine form is on the map in a way few names manage. A Spanish king was ruling an empire that reached across the Pacific when the islands his expeditions claimed were named in his honor, and they have carried his name ever since — through Spanish rule, American rule and independence, a country of a hundred million people named for one sixteenth-century monarch who never went there. A woman called Felipa therefore shares her name, at one small remove, with a nation. That is a strange piece of company for a name to keep, and it is invisible from the English side, where the connection between Philip and the Philippines is rarely made out loud.
Meaning
fond of horses
Greek, a compound of the words for loving and for horse. It was a Macedonian royal name long before it was a Christian one, and the sense has never been in doubt, whatever the name has been used for since.
How the name formed
- Philippos
- Felipe
- Felipa
Related forms: Felipa · Filipa · Philippa · Filippa
Pronouncing Felipa
feh-LEE-pah
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Spanish writes an f where Greek had a ph, and says exactly what it writes, which English does not.
Nicknames for Felipa
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1893
- Most girls named
- 191958 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #925reached in 1919
- Change vs 2012
- 0.0%6 in 2024, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Felipa in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Felipa in Spanish — same name
- Filipa in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Philippa in English — same name
- Filippa in Italian — same name
Felipas among us
people named Felipa are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Felipa sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a completely ordinary name in Spanish and needs no explaining to a Spanish speaker.
- The meaning is old, concrete and pleasantly unusual.
- It has several established short forms rather than an improvised one.
- English speakers will reach for Philippa or Felicia and both are different names.
- The generation that used it in America is now very old.
- The stress falls where English speakers do not expect it and will need giving.
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Felipa
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Felipas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Felipa are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Felipa in 2025?
- Felipa is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Felipa with classmates?
- Felipa will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More F names
The most-given names starting with F, all years combined.
Frances#318 · Florence#391 · Faith#254 · Felicia#5554 · Fannie#3342 · Faye#514 · Flora#607 · Freda#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Felipa? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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