Felix
Masculine · “lucky”
Felix is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 83,508 boys against 672 girls since 1880. See Felix as a girl name
Felix is a Latin word that never stopped being a name: it means fortunate, and Romans handed it out as an extra name to advertise good luck. Two thousand years later it is still spelled exactly the same way in English, German, French and Spanish, and it still ends in that clean click of consonants — FEE-liks. Long out of fashion, it has been climbing steadily back.
How old is the name Felix?
Felix was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Felix alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 60,500 people named Felix are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Felix most popular?
Felix peaked in 1884, reaching #137 nationally. Today it ranks #175, 38 places below that high. See the whole 1884 chart.
Where it comes from
From felix (Latin: lucky, fruitful) to Felix
The story of Felix
Felix began as a Latin adjective and became a Roman cognomen, an added name that advertised a man's good fortune. Christianity carried it forward: it belongs to a long line of early martyrs and to several popes of the first millennium, and it appears in the New Testament as the name of the Roman governor before whom Paul was tried. Because it was a saints' name across the whole of Latin Europe, it survived in Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Hungary and Poland at once, rather than in one national pocket. It reached American records early and has stayed on them since, with a long dip in the middle of the twentieth century and a clear rise in recent decades.
Meaning
lucky, fortunate, happy
From the Latin adjective felix, which covered both 'lucky' and 'fruitful' — it was used of fertile soil as well as of successful men.
Cultural footprint
Felix Mendelssohn (b. 1809) — Composed the Wedding March
Felix Baumgartner (b. 1969) — Broke the sound barrier skydiving from the stratosphere
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- felixLatin: lucky, fruitful
- FelixRoman cognomen
- Felixname of early saints and popes
- Felix
Related forms: Félix · Félix · Felice · Feliks · Félix · Feliks
Pronouncing Felix
FEE-liks
Stress on the first syllable in English. Spanish and French put an accent on the é and shift the emphasis — FAY-leeks, fay-LEEKS — but American speakers reliably land on FEE-liks without being told.
Nicknames for Felix
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20252,064 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #137reached in 1884
- Change vs 2022
- +4.6%2,064 in 2025, from 1,974
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.
Felix in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Félix in Spanish — spelling variant
- Félix in French — spelling variant
- Felice in Italian — related form
- Feliks in Polish — spelling variant
- Félix in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Feliks in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Statistics Canada, Office for National Statistics. Sources
Felixs among us
people named Felix are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 828 born in 2025 was named Felix
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Felix is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Felix is headed
Felix should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Felix beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Felix in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled identically in English, German, Dutch and Scandinavian use, and near-identically in Spanish, French and Portuguese — it travels without correction.
- No pronunciation guesswork: American readers say it right on sight.
- An unbroken written record from Roman antiquity through the medieval church to the present day.
- Currently charts in Canada and England & Wales as well as the US, so it reads as familiar rather than invented.
- Strong enough to stand alone with no nickname at all, which not every three-letter-cluster name manages.
- Felix the Cat has been in cartoons for a century, and in Britain and much of Europe Felix is also a well-known brand of cat food. Most children meet the name as a name first, but the cat is out there.
- The x-ending can collide with surnames that begin with s or z — say the full name aloud a few times before deciding.
- Short forms exist but none has really stuck; expect the full name to do most of the work, which suits some families and not others.
- Because it is rising rather than risen, it may feel less unusual by the time a child born now reaches school than it does today.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Felix
Masculine · #175 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Felixs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 60,500 people named Felix are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Felix in 2025?
- Felix ranks #175 among US boy names in 2025, with 2,064 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Felix?
- About 1 in every 828 US boys born in 2025 was named Felix — 2,064 in all.
- Will my child share the name Felix with classmates?
- Felix will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Felix
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Nico#174 · Antonio#176 · Jesus#173 · Nicolas#177 · Braxton#172 · Judah#178 · Emmanuel#179 · Barrett#171
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Felix? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Felix and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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