Phyllis
Masculine · “Foliage”
Phyllis is given to girls far more often — 322,496 girls against 871 boys since 1880. See Phyllis as a girl 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 first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Phyllis alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 300 people named Phyllis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Phyllis most popular?
Phyllis peaked in 1940, reaching #1135 nationally. See the whole 1940 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 194034 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1135reached in 1940
- Change vs 1967
- 0.0%7 in 1971, from 7
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
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Phyllis 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
- 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.
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Phyllis
Masculine
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 300 people named Phyllis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Phyllis in 2025?
- Phyllis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Phyllis with classmates?
- Phyllis 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 Phyllis? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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