Philipp
Masculine · “fond of horses”
English and German double different letters in this name. English writes Phillip or Philip and, when it doubles, doubles the l. German doubles the p instead — Philipp, with one l and two p's — and that spelling has been standard there for centuries, carried by electors, princes and a long run of ordinary men. The single letter is the whole difference between an American misspelling and a German name.
How old is the name Philipp?
Philipp first appears in US birth records in 1918 — 107 years ago. The typical Philipp alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 800 people named Philipp are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Philipp most popular?
Philipp peaked in 1967, reaching #2030 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 9,978 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Philippos to Philipp
The story of Philipp
Philip of Macedon built the army his son Alexander used to conquer Persia, which put the name into every language Greek touched. It entered Christian use through the apostle Philip and a deacon of the same name in Acts, and spread across Europe from there — Spain had five kings of it, France six, and the German-speaking lands a great many princes. The double-p spelling is the German standard and is what appears when a German family registers a birth in the United States, or when an American family wants the European form rather than the English one.
Meaning
fond of horses
From the Greek philos, loving or fond of, and hippos, a horse. It is one of the more literal Greek compounds and it meant what it says: horses were wealth and status, and a name about loving them was a name about a certain kind of life.
How the name formed
- Philippos
- Philippus
- Philipp
Related forms: Philipp · Philippos · Philippe · Felipe · Filippo · Filipp
Pronouncing Philipp
FIL-ip
Two syllables, stress on the first, said exactly as Philip is said in English. German gives it a slightly different shape — FEE-lip, with a longer first vowel — but the doubled p changes nothing in either language.
Nicknames for Philipp
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
- 1918
- Most boys named
- 199022 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2030reached in 1967
- Change vs 2023
- −16.7%5 in 2025, 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.
Philipp in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Philipp in German — same name
- Philippos in Greek — transliteration
- Philippe in French — same name
- Felipe in Spanish — same name
- Filippo in Italian — same name
- Filipp in Russian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida.
Philipps among us
people named Philipp are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Philipp
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Philipp
- #12008
- Philipp on the 2025 chart
- #315
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Philipp went to 5 boys in 2025, but Philip, Phillip and Filip are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 1,040, which makes it the 315th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,693 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 1,642 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Philipp itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ascencion test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Philipp's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ascencion climbed just as high around 1946, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ascencion's path sketches the road Philipp is walking now.
Philipp 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
Philipp beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Philipp in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a standard German spelling rather than a variation, so it has real standing behind it.
- The name is recognized in every European language and most of them have their own form of it.
- Phil is available and requires nothing of anybody.
- The meaning is concrete, documented and easy to tell.
- In America the second p will be read as a typo and corrected on most documents.
- Philip, Phillip and Philipp all exist, and mail will arrive addressed to all three.
- The difference is silent, so the spelling has to be dictated rather than heard.
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Philipp
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Philipps are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Philipp are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Philipp?
- Philipp is one of 4 recorded spellings. Philip is the more common one — 568 births in 2025 against 5 for Philipp.
- How popular is the name Philipp in 2025?
- Philipp ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Philipp?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Philipp — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Philipp with classmates?
- Philipp will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Philipp
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Philipp? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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