boy's name
Philip
FIL-ip
- Origin Greek
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 2
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 368,749
the United States
#527
2025 births
Philip is a boy's name from Greek elements meaning lover of horses. Our data marks it stable, and unlike the French Philippe — which stayed almost entirely French — it charts in six of the seven markets we track.
- Philip is a name of Greek origin.
- Peaked in 1953, when 6,288 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 5,837 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Philip over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 1,741 |
| 1890s | 2,153 |
| 1900s | 2,823 |
| 1910s | 18,224 |
| 1920s | 27,426 |
| 1930s | 28,967 |
| 1940s | 48,842 |
| 1950s | 60,952 |
| 1960s | 44,920 |
| 1970s | 31,541 |
| 1980s | 35,965 |
| 1990s | 20,497 |
| 2000s | 10,193 |
| 2010s | 7,216 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 3,713 |
What Philip means
Philip means lover of horses. The Greek joins a word for love or affection to the word for a horse, so it describes an attachment rather than ownership.
Where Philip comes from
Philip is the Greek Philippos — philos, loving, joined to hippos, a horse. Horse-owning marked the aristocracy in archaic Greece, so the name carried social standing beyond its literal sense. Philip II of Macedon built the army his son Alexander used to take Persia. The apostle Philip carried the name into Christian use, and it became standard across Europe. In Britain it is now inseparable from Prince Philip, born a prince of Greece and Denmark, who renounced those titles and took the surname Mountbatten in 1947. The same Greek root gives hippopotamus, the river horse.
Philip in use
Philip peaked in the United States in 1953, when 6,288 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It now ranks 310th in Ireland on 14 births, 527th in the United States on 568, 549th in England and Wales on 71, 627th in Scotland and 5219th in France, across 368,749 lifetime births. The French Philippe, by contrast, holds more lifetime births but charts in only three markets — the English form spread where the French one did not.
How popular is Philip?
In 2025, Philip was given to 568 babies in the United States, ranking #527 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Philip is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Philip
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Philip also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Philip over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Philip
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Philip in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Ancient Greek
- Filippos
- Belarusian
- Filip
- Bulgarian
- Filip
- Czech
- Filip
- French
- Philippe
- Galician
- Filipe
- German
- Philipp
- Greek
- Filippos
- Italian
- Filippo
- Polish
- Filip
- Romanian
- Filip
- Slovene
- Filip
- Spanish
- Felipe
- Swedish
- Filip
- Other forms
- Forms we hold no single language for — some are used across several, some are simply spelled differently.
- Phillip
Sibling names for Philip
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Philip — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Philip
What does the name Philip mean?
Lover of horses — the Greek philos, loving, joined to hippos, a horse.
Is it Philip or Phillip?
Philip with one l follows the Greek; Phillip is a later English doubling. Both are in use.
Is Philip the same as Philippe?
Yes, the English and French forms. Philip charts in five markets, Philippe in three.
How popular is Philip?
527th in the United States and 310th in Ireland, and our data marks it stable.
Is Philip a girl's or a boy's name?
Philip is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Philip?
Philip has 2 syllables.
What are the nicknames for Philip?
Philip is usually shortened to Phil and Pip.
Is Philip a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Philip currently ranks #310 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.