Boy · Ancient Greek
Philip
Say it: FIL-ip
Meaning
Greek Philippos, 'fond of horses' (philos 'loving' and hippos 'horse').
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Borne by the apostle and by many French and Spanish kings, and common across Europe.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1940s
In the United States
- 342,093 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1949, about 1 in 285 boys
- 655 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
Early ChristianAncient GreekEnglishAmericanFrenchSpanishItalianPortugueseGermanPolishRussianGreek
The family of the name
Other spellings: Phillip, Phelip
| French | Philippe |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Felipe |
| Italian | Filippo |
| Portuguese | Filipe |
| German | Philipp |
| Polish | Filip |
| Russian | Filipp |
| Irish | Pilib |
Famous bearers
- Philip the Apostle
- Philip II of Macedon
- Philip II, king of Spain
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Royal and noble genealogies
- Calendars of saints and name days
- Ancient Greek literature and history (Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch and others)
- English poll taxes and lay subsidy rolls (13th and 14th centuries)
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.