Phoebie
Feminine name derived from the Greek meaning "radiant, shining one".
Name Census estimates that about 52 living Americans carry the first name Phoebie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Phoebie today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Phoebie births was 1923 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Phoebie. 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 Phoebie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Phoebie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
52
~ 1 in 6,591,430 Americans
Peak year
1923
8 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2023 SSA rank
#17,011
Tracked since 1898
Census
Phoebie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 111 people with the first name Phoebie, which placed it at #51,800 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
#51,800
National first-name rank
People counted
111
111 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Phoebie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phoebie is White at 61.3%. The next largest groups are Black (14.4%) and Hispanic (9.0%). 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 Phoebie 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 Phoebie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.3% · 68
- Black or African American14.4% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino9.0% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.1% · 9
- Two or more races4.5% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.7% · 3
Popularity
Phoebie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Phoebie from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 23 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Phoebie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Phoebie 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 Phoebie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Phoebie
The name Phoebie is derived from the ancient Greek word "phoibos," which means "radiant" or "shining." It is a feminine form of the name Phoebus, which was one of the epithets of the Greek god Apollo, the god of light, music, and poetry.
The name Phoebie has its roots in Greek mythology and was likely first used in ancient Greece. In Greek mythology, Phoebe was a Titaness who was associated with the moon and was considered the mother of Leto, who gave birth to the twin gods Apollo and Artemis.
The earliest recorded use of the name Phoebie can be traced back to ancient Greek texts and inscriptions. It was a relatively common name among Greek women during the classical period.
One notable historical figure with the name Phoebie was a Greek poet who lived in the 3rd century BC. She was a member of the Alexandrian school of poetry and was known for her lyric poetry.
In the Middle Ages, the name Phoebie was relatively rare, but it did appear in some historical records from various European countries, including France and England.
In the 16th century, a woman named Phoebie Palmieri was a prominent Italian poet and scholar. She was born in 1522 and was known for her contributions to the Renaissance literary movement.
Another notable figure with the name Phoebie was Phoebie Cary, an American poet and educator who lived in the 19th century. She was born in 1824 and was a pioneer in the field of women's education.
In the 20th century, Phoebie Ephron was an American playwright and screenwriter who was born in 1914. She was best known for her work on the Broadway play "Take Her, She's Mine" and the film "Desk Set."
Phoebie Doyle was an American artist and painter who lived from 1924 to 2010. She was known for her abstract expressionist paintings and was a prominent figure in the New York art scene.
People
Phoebie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Phoebie 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
Phoebie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Phoebie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 52 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Phoebie 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 6,591,430 US residents.
Is Phoebie a common name?
We classify Phoebie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 54.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 71 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Phoebie most popular?
The single biggest year for Phoebie was 1923, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Phoebie is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Phoebie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 111 people with the name Phoebie, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,800 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 Phoebie 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 Phoebie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Phoebie leans strongly female. 112 people counted with this name were female (98.2%), compared with 2 male bearers (1.8%). 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 Phoebie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phoebie is White at 61.3%. The next largest groups are Black (14.4%) and Hispanic (9.0%). 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 Phoebie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Phoebie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.3% (68 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 Phoebie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Phoebie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Phoebie 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 Phoebie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Phoebie 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 Phoebie 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 are named Phoebie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.