Phyllis
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "leafy green foliage".
Name Census estimates that about 115,180 living Americans carry the first name Phyllis. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Phyllis today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Phyllis births was 1947 (9,205 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Phyllis. 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 Phyllis with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Phyllis is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 871 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Phyllis is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Phyllis' were born before 1962.
- • Compared to the 1940s, recent registration numbers for Phyllis have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
115K
~ 1 in 2,976 Americans
Peak year
1947
9,205 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1971 SSA rank
#4,275
Tracked since 1880
Census
Phyllis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 165,944 people with the first name Phyllis, which placed it at #333 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
#333
National first-name rank
People counted
166K
165,944 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
54.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Phyllis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phyllis is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Black (14.0%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Phyllis 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 Phyllis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.3% · 134,876
- Black or African American14.0% · 23,242
- Two or more races1.7% · 2,809
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 2,606
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 1,279
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1,132
Gender
Gender distribution for Phyllis
Out of the 323,361 babies given the name Phyllis since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Phyllis as a male name
- Ranked #4,275 in 1971
- 7 male births in 1971
- Peak: 1940 (34 births)
Phyllis as a female name
- Ranked #8,282 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (9,187 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Phyllis appears almost entirely female. Of the 165,949 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Phyllis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Phyllis from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 76,382 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
Phyllis 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 Phyllis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Phyllis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Phyllis, while Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6,220 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Phyllis
The name Phyllis has its origins in ancient Greek, derived from the word "phyllon", meaning "green shoot" or "foliage". It was initially used as a feminine form of the male name Phyllos, which held a similar meaning.
In ancient Greek mythology, Phyllis was a young woman who took her own life out of sorrow after being abandoned by her lover, Demophon. According to the legend, she was transformed into an almond tree, which became a symbol of life and rebirth.
The earliest recorded use of the name Phyllis can be traced back to the 5th century BC, when it appeared in the works of Greek dramatists and poets. It was a relatively popular name among the ancient Greeks, particularly in the regions of Athens and the surrounding areas.
Over the centuries, the name Phyllis has been associated with various historical figures. One notable example is Phyllis Wheatley, an African American poet and advocate for the abolition of slavery, who lived from 1753 to 1784. Her collection of poems, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," published in 1773, was highly acclaimed and made her one of the first African American authors to gain recognition in the United States.
Another prominent figure was Phyllis Schlafly, an American constitutional lawyer, conservative activist, and author, who lived from 1924 to 2016. She was known for her staunch opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment and her efforts to promote traditional gender roles.
In the realm of entertainment, Phyllis Diller, an American comedian and actress, made a significant impact with her distinctive laugh and self-deprecating humor. She was born in 1917 and passed away in 2012, leaving behind a legacy as one of the pioneering female stand-up comedians.
Phyllis Shand Allfrey, a Dominican writer and social activist, was a prominent figure in the literary world. Born in 1908, she fought for women's rights and racial equality, and her works, including the novel "The Orchid House," explored themes of colonialism and identity.
Lastly, Phyllis McGinley, an American author and poet, is remembered for her light and humorous verse, often focusing on domestic life and the experiences of women. She was born in 1905 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1961 for her collection "Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Phyllis
People
Phyllis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Phyllis 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
Phyllis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Phyllis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 115,180 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Phyllis 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 2,976 US residents.
Is Phyllis a common name?
We classify Phyllis as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 323,361 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Phyllis most popular?
The single biggest year for Phyllis was 1947, when 9,205 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Phyllis is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Phyllis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 165,944 people with the name Phyllis, or 54.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #333 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 Phyllis 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 Phyllis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Phyllis appears almost entirely female. Of the 165,949 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Phyllis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Phyllis is White at 81.3%. The next largest groups are Black (14.0%) and Two or More Races (1.7%). 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 Phyllis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Phyllis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.3% (134,876 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 Phyllis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Phyllis a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Phyllis 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 Phyllis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Phyllis 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 Phyllis 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 Phyllis as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Phyllis, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.