Philippe
Masculine · “lover of horses”
Philippe means lover of horses, and it is one of the very few ancient Greek names whose meaning is both certain and unexpected. Philip of Macedon, Alexander's father, carried it; so did six kings of France and five of Spain. The French spelling reached its American peak in 1964.
How old is the name Philippe?
Philippe first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Philippe alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 2,500 people named Philippe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Philippe most popular?
Philippe peaked in 1964, reaching #1025 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 5,118 places below that high. See the whole 1964 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Philippos to Philippe
The story of Philippe
Philip II of Macedon built the army his son Alexander used to conquer the Persian empire. The apostle Philip carried the name into Christianity, and it became a royal name across Europe: Philippe in France, Felipe in Spain, Filippo in Italy, Filip in the Slavic countries. Philippe was borne by six French kings including Philippe Auguste, who took much of France back from the English. The French spelling came to America with French and Quebecois communities and, more recently, with Haitian and francophone African families; its peak here is 1964.
Meaning
lover of horses
Greek philos, 'loving, dear', and hippos, 'horse' — the same hippos as in hippopotamus, the river horse, and hippodrome, the horse course. Philippos was an aristocratic Greek name, and horses were an aristocratic possession, so the name signaled rank as much as affection. The derivation is settled and has never been questioned.
How the name formed
- Philippos
- Philippus
- Philippe
Related forms: Philippe · Felipe · Filippo · Philipp · Filippos
Pronouncing Philippe
fee-LEEP
Two syllables in French, stress at the end, with a silent final e. English speakers say FIL-ip, following the English Philip and sounding neither the French vowels nor the stress. Both are heard on American bearers.
Nicknames for Philippe
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 197856 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1025reached in 1964
- Change vs 2023
- −36.4%14 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.
Philippe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Philippe in French — same name
- Felipe in Spanish — related form
- Filippo in Italian — related form
- Philipp in German — related form
- Filippos in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, California.
Philippes among us
people named Philippe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Philippe
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Philippe
- #6143
- Philippe on the 2025 chart
- #908
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Philippe went to 14 boys in 2025, but Filipe is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 908th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,235 places above the chart.
- Philippe14
- Filipe6
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Philippe 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 Erskine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Philippe's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Erskine climbed just as high around 1921, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Erskine's path sketches the road Philippe is walking now.
Philippe 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
Philippe beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Philippe in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, memorable and expressible in three words.
- Phil and Pip are both established short forms with long histories.
- The name is royal in three countries and recognized everywhere.
- The French and English pronunciations are quite different.
- The doubled p and final e are both dropped by people writing from dictation.
- Its American curve is mid-century, which places a bearer's generation.
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Philippe
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Philippes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Philippe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Philippe?
- Philippe is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Filipe.
- How popular is the name Philippe in 2025?
- Philippe ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Philippe?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Philippe — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Philippe with classmates?
- Philippe will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Philippe
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Philippe? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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