Filippo
Masculine · “lover of horses”
Philip is a horse name, and Greek aristocratic naming is full of them: Hippocrates, Xanthippe, Hipparchus, Philippos. The reason is money. Keeping a horse marked a man as belonging to the class that could fight on one, and the cavalry was called the hippeis.
How old is the name Filippo?
Filippo first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Filippo alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 700 people named Filippo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Filippo most popular?
Filippo peaked in 1973, reaching #2405 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 4,398 places below that high. See the whole 1973 chart.
Where it comes from
From Philippos to Filippo
The story of Filippo
In archaic and classical Greece a horse was a considerable expense, and the men who could keep one formed a distinct property class, so horse elements in a name announced status. Philip II of Macedon carried the name and his son Alexander made it permanent; the apostle Philip carried it into Christian use, and it spread across every European language. Italian gives Filippo, with the ph written as f because Italian has no ph digraph, and the doubled p that Italian regularly produces. It reached United States records with Italian migration and had its best year in 1973, later than most Italian names of its type.
Meaning
lover of horses
Greek Philippos, from philos, loving or dear, and hippos, a horse. The compound is a standard Greek aristocratic type. The same hippos gives hippopotamus, the river horse, and hippodrome, the horse-running place; philos gives philosophy and philanthropy.
How the name formed
- Philippos
- Philippus
- Filippo
Related forms: Filippo · Felipe · Philippe · Filipp · Filip
Pronouncing Filippo
fee-LEEP-poh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. The doubled p is genuinely held longer in Italian, which is the detail English speakers do not reproduce.
Nicknames for Filippo
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 202422 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2405reached in 1973
- Change vs 2024
- −45.5%12 in 2025, from 22
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.
Filippo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Filippo in Italian — same name
- Felipe in Spanish — same name
- Philippe in French — same name
- Filipp in Russian — same name
- Filip in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Florida.
Filippos among us
people named Filippo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Filippo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ronnel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Filippo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ronnel climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ronnel's path sketches the road Filippo is walking now.
Filippo sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Filippo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Filippo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Greek meaning and one of the great names of European history.
- Pippo and Phil are two short forms from two different traditions.
- Recognized in some form in every European language.
- Philip and Phillip are the English standards and will be substituted.
- The doubled p is not audible to English speakers.
- It reads as distinctly Italian, which may be exactly the point.
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What they receive
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Filippo
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Filippos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Filippo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Filippo in 2025?
- Filippo ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Filippo?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Filippo — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Filippo with classmates?
- Filippo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Filippo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Filippo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Filippo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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