Phylis
Feminine · “foliage”
Phylis is the spelling that looks most like the Greek and is used the least. It keeps the y that stands for a Greek letter and drops one of the two l's that English convention put there, which leaves it closer to the original and further from every American form.
How old is the name Phylis?
Phylis first appears in US birth records in 1896 — 129 years ago. The typical Phylis alive today was born around 1942, making them about 83 years old. About 1,600 people named Phylis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Phylis most popular?
Phylis peaked in 1943, reaching #788 nationally. See the whole 1943 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Phyllis to Phylis
The story of Phylis
English spelling of Greek names is a patchwork of conventions applied at different dates. The y is a real transliteration of a Greek letter that English has no other way of writing; the ph is a real transliteration of another; the doubled l is not from Greek at all but an English habit for keeping a preceding vowel short. Different spellings of this name keep different combinations of those decisions, and none of them is more correct than the others because the decisions were never coordinated. Phylis keeps the two that come from Greek and drops the one that does not, and it is by some distance the rarest of the family.
Meaning
foliage, greenery
The Greek word means leaves or green growth. The name belongs to a story in which the woman is turned into a tree, so the meaning and the story agree, which is rarer than it sounds.
How the name formed
- Phyllis
- Phylis
Related forms: Phyllis · Phyllis
Pronouncing Phylis
FIL-iss
Two syllables with the weight at the front. All the spellings of this name are said identically; only the letters differ.
Nicknames for Phylis
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
- 1896
- Most girls named
- 1949109 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #788reached in 1943
- Change vs 1976
- −16.7%5 in 1985, 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.
Phylis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Phyllis in Greek — transliteration
- Phyllis in French — spelling variant
Phyliss among us
people named Phylis 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
Phylis 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.
- It is closer to the Greek than any other English spelling of the name.
- The meaning is concrete and green, and the story attached to it is memorable.
- Phyllis is the standard spelling and will be written instead, every time.
- The single l invites a long first vowel that nobody actually uses.
- It reads as a name of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Phylis
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Phyliss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Phylis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Phylis in 2025?
- Phylis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Phylis with classmates?
- Phylis 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 Phylis? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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