Phebe
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "radiant" or "shining one".
Name Census estimates that about 1,588 living Americans carry the first name Phebe. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Phebe today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Phebe births was 2011 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Phebe. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Phebe with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 215,840 Americans
Peak year
2011
45 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,730
Tracked since 1880
Census
Phebe in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,735 people with the first name Phebe, which placed it at #8,370 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#8,370
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,735 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Phebe
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phebe is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Phebe described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Phebe at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.7% · 1,105
- Black or African American15.8% · 274
- Asian and Pacific Islander10.8% · 188
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 93
- Two or more races3.7% · 65
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 10
Popularity
Phebe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Phebe from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 348 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Phebe remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Phebe by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Phebe during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Phebes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Phebe, while Texas, Tennessee, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Phebe
The name Phebe has its origins in ancient Greek, derived from the Greek word "phoibos", meaning "radiant" or "bright". It is a feminine form of the male name Phoebus, which was an epithet of the Greek god Apollo, known as the god of light, truth, and prophecy.
In Greek mythology, Phebe was one of the original Titans, born to Uranus and Gaia. She was the personification of the moon and was associated with lunar deities. The name Phebe also appears in the New Testament of the Bible, referring to a Christian woman who was a deacon in the church at Cenchreae.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Phebe can be found in ancient Greek literature, such as the works of Homer and Hesiod, where it was used to refer to various mythological figures and deities associated with the moon and light.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Phebe. In the 1st century AD, Phebe of Cenchreae was a deacon in the early Christian church, mentioned in the Bible's Epistle to the Romans. Phebe Cary (1824-1871) was an American poet and philanthropist who, along with her sister Alice, wrote popular poems and hymns.
Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford (1829-1921) was an American author, lecturer, and advocate for women's rights and abolition. Phebe Novakovic (born 1957) is an American businesswoman who has served as the CEO of General Dynamics since 2013.
Phebe Philips Folger (1837-1930) was an American educator and philanthropist who co-founded the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses one of the world's largest collections of Shakespeare-related materials.
People
Phebe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Phebe as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Phebe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Phebe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,588 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Phebe going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 215,840 US residents.
Is Phebe a common name?
We classify Phebe as "Rare". It ranks above 92.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,936 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Phebe most popular?
The single biggest year for Phebe was 2011, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Phebe is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Phebe in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,735 people with the name Phebe, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,370 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Phebe in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Phebe?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Phebe appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,740 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Phebe?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phebe is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (10.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Phebe most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Phebe in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.7% (1,105 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Phebe in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Phebe a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Phebe in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Phebe still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Phebe in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Phebe can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Phebe?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.