Phillips
A masculine name derived from the Greek name Phillipos, meaning "horse lover".
Name Census estimates that about 744 living Americans carry the first name Phillips. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Phillips today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Phillips births was 1949 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Phillips. 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.
People living today
744
~ 1 in 460,691 Americans
Peak year
1949
32 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,516
Tracked since 1904
Census
Phillips in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 904 people with the first name Phillips, which placed it at #13,380 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
#13,380
National first-name rank
People counted
904
904 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
60.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Phillips
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phillips is White at 60.5%. The next largest groups are Black (19.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Phillips 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 Phillips at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White60.5% · 547
- Black or African American19.7% · 178
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.3% · 84
- Hispanic or Latino8.4% · 76
- Two or more races1.8% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 3
Popularity
Phillips: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Phillips from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 176 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Phillips 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 Phillips during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Phillips' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Phillips
The name Phillips is a masculine given name with Greek origins, derived from the ancient Greek name Philipp??s. It is composed of the Greek elements "philos" meaning "friend, lover" and "hippos" meaning "horse." The name can be interpreted to mean "friend of horses" or "horse lover."
In ancient Greek mythology, Phillippos was the name of one of the horses of Achilles, the legendary Greek warrior in the Trojan War, as described in Homer's Iliad. The name gained popularity during the Hellenistic period and was later adopted by the Romans.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Phillippos dates back to the 4th century BC, when it was borne by Phillippos of Acragas, a Greek historian and philosopher from the city of Acragas (modern-day Agrigento) in Sicily.
Throughout history, several notable figures have carried the name Phillips or its variations. One of the most famous was Philip II of Macedon (382-336 BC), the father of Alexander the Great, who was a powerful ruler and military strategist responsible for uniting the Greek city-states.
In the Christian tradition, Philip was the name of one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, as mentioned in the New Testament. Saint Philip is revered as a martyr and is celebrated in various Christian denominations.
Another notable figure was Philip Neri (1515-1595), an Italian priest and founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, a religious order dedicated to community life and apostolic work.
In the field of science, Phillips Hansborough (1798-1865) was an American mathematician and astronomer best known for his contributions to the study of comets and the calculation of planetary orbits.
The name also has literary associations, with Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) being an American Episcopal clergyman and author who is remembered for writing the lyrics to the popular Christmas carol "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Phillips or its variations, showcasing its enduring presence and cultural significance across various disciplines and eras.
People
Phillips + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Phillips 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
Phillips: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Phillips?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 744 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Phillips 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 460,691 US residents.
Is Phillips a common name?
We classify Phillips as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,331 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Phillips most popular?
The single biggest year for Phillips was 1949, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Phillips is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Phillips in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 904 people with the name Phillips, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,380 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 Phillips 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 Phillips?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Phillips leans strongly male. 796 people counted with this name were male (88.2%), compared with 106 female bearers (11.8%). 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 Phillips?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phillips is White at 60.5%. The next largest groups are Black (19.7%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Phillips most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Phillips in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.5% (547 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 Phillips in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Phillips a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Phillips in the SSA data are male. 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 Phillips still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Phillips 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 Phillips 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 many people have the name Phillips?
Find out how many Americans are named Phillips on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.