Phillis
Feminine · “foliage”
Phillis is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 3,677 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
The most important person to carry this name did not choose it, and neither did her parents. Phillis Wheatley was named after the slave ship that brought her to Boston, and she became the first African American to publish a book of poetry — which is the whole history of the name in America in two sentences.
How old is the name Phillis?
Phillis first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Phillis alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 2,100 people named Phillis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Phillis most popular?
Phillis peaked in 1949, reaching #800 nationally. See the whole 1949 chart.
Where it comes from
From Phyllis to Phillis
The story of Phillis
In the Greek telling, Phyllis waits for a husband who does not return, dies of grief, and is turned into an almond tree, which bursts into flower when he finally comes back and puts his arms around it. The name went into English pastoral poetry as a shepherdess and stayed there for two hundred years, which is how a Boston merchant family came to have it available in 1761 for a girl of about seven whom they had just bought, and to give it to her from the ship's name. She learned to read Greek and Latin within a few years, published in London in 1773 because no American printer would take her, was examined by a panel of Boston men who did not believe she had written her own poems, and was freed shortly afterwards. She died poor at thirty-one. The spelling with two l's and one i is hers.
Meaning
foliage, leafy
From the Greek phyllis, a word for leaves or greenery. The name belongs to a Greek story in which the meaning turns out to be the point.
How the name formed
- Phyllis
- Phillis
Related forms: Phyllis · Phyllis
Pronouncing Phillis
FIL-iss
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Phillis and Phyllis are said identically; only the spelling separates them.
Nicknames for Phillis
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
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 1949118 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #800reached in 1949
- Change vs 1992
- 0.0%8 in 2000, 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.
Phillis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Phyllis in Greek — transliteration
- Phyllis in French — spelling variant
Philliss among us
people named Phillis 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
Phillis 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
- It is said correctly at sight by anyone who has met the commoner spelling.
- The meaning is concrete and green, and the story attached to it is memorable.
- It carries one of the most significant bearers of any name in American letters.
- Phyllis is the standard spelling and will be written instead on almost every form.
- The name's American history begins in slavery, and a family choosing it should know that rather than discover it.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well as girls in the United States.
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What they receive
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Phillis
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Philliss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Phillis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Phillis in 2025?
- Phillis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Phillis with classmates?
- Phillis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More P names
The most-given names starting with P, all years combined.
Patricia#1334 · Pamela#2239 · Phyllis#11932 · Peggy#8362 · Paula#853 · Pauline#2957 · Pearl#776 · Paige#346
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Phillis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Phillis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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