Girl · Ancient Greek
Phoebe
Say it: FEE-bee
Meaning
Greek Phoibē, 'bright, radiant'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Common in Puritan and 18th-century America, often spelled Phebe, and popular again in Britain since the 1990s.
Its wave through time
A revival, back after decades away
In the United States
- 35,872 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 2020, about 1 in 1,400 girls
- 1,163 babies in 2020
Through the ages
- The Biblical WorldAbout 1200 BC to AD 100
- Ancient Greece800 BC to 146 BC
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Phebe, Pheobe
| French | Phébé |
|---|---|
| Spanish | Febe |
| Italian | Febe |
| German | Phöbe |
| Greek | Foibi |
| Greek | Foivi |
Famous bearers
- Phoebe, deacon of Cenchreae in Romans 16
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Hebrew Bible and the New Testament
- Puritan church and town records of England and New England
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- Parish baptism registers
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- 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.