Phylis
Feminine name of Greek origin meaning "green foliage" or "leafy greenery".
Name Census estimates that about 1,298 living Americans carry the first name Phylis. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Phylis today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Phylis births was 1949 (109 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Phylis. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Phylis is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Phylis' were born before 1963.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 264,063 Americans
Peak year
1949
109 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1985 SSA rank
#11,953
Tracked since 1896
Census
Phylis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,564 people with the first name Phylis, which placed it at #6,289 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
#6,289
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,564 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Phylis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phylis is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.5%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Phylis 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 Phylis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.9% · 2,022
- Black or African American15.5% · 398
- Two or more races2.0% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 26
Popularity
Phylis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Phylis from the 1890s through to the 1980s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 857 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
Phylis 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 Phylis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Phylis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. New York, Ohio, Illinois recorded the most babies named Phylis, while West Virginia, Oklahoma, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Phylis
The name Phylis finds its origins in the ancient Greek language. Derived from the Greek word "phyllon," meaning "leaf," it was initially used as a feminine form of the masculine name Phyllos. This connection to nature and greenery is reflected in the name's earliest known use.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Phylis can be found in Greek mythology. Phylis was a young woman from the island of Thrace who fell in love with Demophon, a son of the legendary Greek hero Theseus. Their tragic love story is recounted in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," a seminal work of classical literature from the 1st century AD.
During the Byzantine era, the name Phylis gained popularity among Greek-speaking communities in the Eastern Mediterranean. Historical records from this period mention several notable individuals bearing this name, including Phylis of Alexandria, a 5th-century philosopher and mathematician renowned for her contributions to the study of geometry.
As the name spread throughout Europe, it underwent various spelling variations, such as Phyllis, Phillis, and Fillis. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name in Western literature can be found in the pastoral poetry of the 16th-century English poet Edmund Spenser, who immortalized the name in his epic work "The Faerie Queene."
Throughout the centuries, several notable figures have borne the name Phylis or its variations. Phylis Wheatley (1753-1784) was an influential African-American poet and pioneer of the Black literary tradition in colonial America. Phylis McGinley (1905-1978), an American writer and poet, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1961 for her work "Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades."
In the realm of classical music, Phylis Curtin (1917-2016) was an acclaimed American soprano who performed leading roles in operas by composers such as Richard Strauss and Benjamin Britten. Phylis Shand Allfrey (1908-1986), a West Indian writer and politician, played a significant role in the literary and political landscapes of Dominica and the Caribbean region.
The name Phylis has also been associated with notable figures in the arts and entertainment industry. Phylis Salindri (1924-2008), an American actress and dancer, appeared in numerous Hollywood films and television shows throughout her career, while Phylis Gershator (1923-2013) was a respected children's book author and illustrator.
People
Phylis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Phylis 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
Phylis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Phylis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,298 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Phylis 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 264,063 US residents.
Is Phylis a common name?
We classify Phylis as "Rare". It ranks above 91.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,342 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Phylis most popular?
The single biggest year for Phylis was 1949, when 109 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Phylis is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Phylis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,564 people with the name Phylis, or 0.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,289 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 Phylis 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 Phylis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Phylis appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,563 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Phylis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phylis is White at 78.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.5%) and Two or More Races (2.0%). 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 Phylis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Phylis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.9% (2,022 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 Phylis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Phylis a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Phylis 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 Phylis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Phylis 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 Phylis 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 Phylis?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Phylis at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.