Phillips
Masculine · “fond of horses”
Phillips doubles a letter that the Latin name does not. The Latin has two p's and one l; the English surname reversed it, taking one p and two l's, and the doubled form became the commoner spelling of the family name while the single one stayed closer to the original. The name underneath belongs to an apostle who mostly appears introducing people.
How old is the name Phillips?
Phillips first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Phillips alive today was born around 1950, making them about 75 years old. About 700 people named Phillips are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Phillips most popular?
Phillips peaked in 1909, reaching #1083 nationally. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Greek compound about horses to Phillips
The story of Phillips
The apostle of this name has a small and consistent role in one gospel. He finds somebody and brings him; when foreign visitors want an introduction they come to him and he goes to another disciple about it; when a crowd needs feeding he is the one asked what can be done, and his answer is an estimate of the cost. He is not given a speech, a miracle or a martyrdom in the text, and what he is given is a function: he is the one who brings other people in. Later tradition supplied him with travels and a death, as it did for all of them, but the figure in the earliest text is a connector and nothing else, which is an oddly modern kind of job.
Meaning
fond of horses
Two Greek elements, one about loving and one meaning a horse, and the reading is settled. The s at the end of this spelling is the English possessive worn into a surname, marking somebody's son. So the whole is a Greek compound with an English grammatical ending attached.
How the name formed
- A Greek compound about horses
- An apostle's name across Christian Europe
- An English surname with a possessive ending
- Phillips as an American first name
Pronouncing Phillips
FIL-ips
Two syllables, stress on the first. The ph writes an f, as it does in every Greek borrowing English has; the doubled l is silent in the sense that matters, since a single one would sound the same.
Nicknames for Phillips
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 192423 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1083reached in 1909
- Change vs 2019
- −12.5%7 in 2023, from 8
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.
Phillipss among us
people named Phillips 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
Phillips 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
- Phil and Pip are two well-established short forms.
- The sound is universally familiar and needs no coaching.
- It carries a family history in a single letter at the end.
- It reads as a surname, which is the point for some families and not for others.
- Philips and Phillips are both in use and will be exchanged.
- It is firmly of the early twentieth century in American records.
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What they receive
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Phillips
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Phillipss 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 Phillips are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Phillips in 2025?
- Phillips is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Phillips with classmates?
- Phillips will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Paul#262 · Patrick#235 · Peter#187 · Philip#527 · Phillip#651 · Parker#102 · Preston#299 · Pedro#455
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Phillips? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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