Phyllis
Feminine · “Foliage”
Phyllis is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 322,496 girls against 871 boys since 1880. See Phyllis as a boy name
Phyllis was, for two hundred years, the name English poets gave to a shepherdess. If a poem of a certain period has a country girl in it, she is called Phyllis, Chloe or Corinna, and the choice tells you more about the poet than about her.
How old is the name Phyllis?
Phyllis was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Phyllis alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 148,000 people named Phyllis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Phyllis most popular?
Phyllis peaked in 1929, reaching #24 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 11,908 places below that high. See the whole 1929 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Phyllis
Pastoral poetry is a genre about shepherds written entirely by people who lived in cities, and it ran in English from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth with a fixed cast of names. Phyllis is one of the two or three most used. The convention came from Greek and Latin models and was so well established that a reader meeting the name in a poem knew immediately what kind of poem it was — the way a modern reader knows what to expect from a story that opens in a spaceship. When the fashion collapsed, the names stayed in circulation stripped of the convention, which is why this one reached ordinary American families with no shepherd attached.
Meaning
Foliage, green leaves
The Greek word means foliage or a leafy branch. It was a name in Greek before it was anything else, and the meaning has never been in dispute.
Pronouncing Phyllis
FIL-iss
Two syllables, stress at the front. The ph and the y are both Greek spellings doing ordinary English work.
Nicknames for Phyllis
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19487,876 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #24reached in 1929
- Change vs 2022
- −53.3%7 in 2025, from 15
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.
Phyllis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Phyllis in French — same name
- Fyllis in Greek — same name
Phylliss among us
people named Phyllis are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Phyllis
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Thelma test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Phyllis's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Thelma climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Thelma's path sketches the road Phyllis is walking now.
Phyllis 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
Phyllis beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Phyllis in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and pleasant, and the name is genuinely ancient.
- It is read correctly on sight by everybody.
- It carries two centuries of English poetry for anybody who goes looking.
- The name is strongly associated with one American generation and has not yet returned.
- The spelling is recorded for boys as well, though it belongs overwhelmingly to the girls.
- Phillis and Philis are both in the record and will be offered as corrections.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Phyllis to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Phyllis
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Phylliss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 148,000 people named Phyllis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Phyllis in 2025?
- Phyllis ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Phyllis?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Phyllis — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Phyllis with classmates?
- Phyllis will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Phyllis
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Phyllis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Phyllis and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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