Phillip
The story
Phillip is the double-L American spelling of Philip, a name that arrived from Greek with its meaning intact: philos and hippos, a lover of horses. It belonged to Alexander the Great's father, to one of the twelve apostles, and to kings of Spain and France, as long a royal and biblical pedigree as any name in use. The second L, familiar from the surname Phillips, became a settled American habit, and the records show how comfortable that habit was: Phillip rose steadily through the early twentieth century, then held one remarkably level line from the 1940s all the way into the 2010s, seven decades without a spike or a slump, easing only in the most recent years. Phil is the friendliest of nicknames, the pedigree is bulletproof, and the long flat curve says that parents never really stopped agreeing on it.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Phillip peaked in the 1940s and the 2010s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
635 people · the #11,337 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 30
Among people named Phillip living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 41 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Phillip
People given the name Phillip in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1999. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Phillip deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Phillip truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Phillip fits with your family’s names and surname.
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