Philip is the rare classic that never fell out of use and never became a top-50 name. It is easy to spell, easy to shorten, and carries centuries of royal and biblical history without sounding stiff on a toddler.
The meaning is Greek and pleasantly concrete: lover of horses, from philos, meaning friend or loving, and hippos, meaning horse. Federal birth records list the name in every year since 1880, yet only 568 boys received it in 2025, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration.
Verdict: Philip is a strong choice for a baby born in 2026. It gives a child the history of William or James, a nickname bench that runs from Phil to Pip to Flip, and very little chance of sharing his name with a classmate.
Philip Overview
- Meaning: Philip means lover of horses or friend of horses. It joins the Greek philos, meaning friend or loving, with hippos, meaning horse.
- Gender: Philip is a boy name. Girls appear in the records only barely, 1,137 of them since 1880, and the name last showed up on the girls’ list in 1996.
- Origin: Greek, from Philippos. Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, carried it first, then Saint Philip the Apostle, then kings of France, Spain, and Portugal.
- Pronunciation: FIHL-ihp, with the stress on the first syllable.
- Popularity: Philip ranked 528th for U.S. boys in 2025, with 568 babies given the name. Half of everyone ever recorded with it was born after 1956.
- Nicknames: Phil, Pip, Philly, Flip, Lip, Pippin.
- Variations: Felipe, Philippe, Filippo, Philipp, Filippos, Filip, Pilib, Fülöp, Vilppu, Pylyp.
- Namesakes: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort to Queen Elizabeth II. Philip Seymour Hoffman, the American actor who won a best actor Oscar for Capote. Philip K. Dick, the science fiction writer behind Blade Runner.
What Does Philip Mean?
Philip means lover of horses, or friend of horses. It is a male name taken from the Greek name Philippos, a compound of philos, meaning friend, dear, or loving, and hippos, the ordinary Greek word for horse.
That meaning carried social weight in the ancient world. Horses were a luxury, kept for riding and warfare rather than farm work, so owning one marked a family as wealthy enough to ride rather than plow, and Greek naming reflected it. A boy called Philippos was being placed among the class that raced chariots and rode into battle, which is why the name still reads as noble rather than rustic.
The sense that survives into English is gentler: someone who is good with animals, steady, and in command of something powerful without needing to fight it.
Where Does the Name Philip Come From?
Philip comes from ancient Greece, where Philippos was in circulation centuries before it reached English. Its first famous bearer was Philip II of Macedon, born in 382 BC, who ruled from 359 to 336 BC, rebuilt the Macedonian army around the long sarissa pike, held sway over all of Greece by 339 BC, and fathered Alexander the Great (1). Alexander got the legend, but the name came from his father.
The name then moved into Christian use through the New Testament. Saint Philip the Apostle came from Bethsaida in Galilee, was one of the Twelve, and is still honored on May 3 in the Western church and on November 14 in the East. A second Philip, the Evangelist, appears in Acts, and between them the name traveled across the early church.
By the Middle Ages Philip had become a royal staple rather than a strictly religious choice. It was used repeatedly for kings in France, Spain, and Portugal, and it eventually settled into the British royal family, which is where most English speakers first meet it.
How Popular is the Name Philip?
Philip ranked 528th for U.S. boys in 2025, when 568 babies received it, or roughly one boy in 3,003 (2).
The chart is interactive, so you can point at any year and read that year’s rate for yourself. Philip peaked in 1948, when 6,162 boys got the name, its highest share of births on record, and the best rank on record is 52nd in 1941. Across all 146 years of federal records the name has never been absent, and 344,036 boys have carried it in that time.
Half of everyone ever recorded with the name was born after 1956. Recent years have been steady rather than a continued slide, which puts Philip in useful territory for parents: familiar to every adult who hears it, and uncommon enough that your son will probably be the only one in his grade.
How Do I Pronounce Philip?
Philip is pronounced FIHL-ihp, with the stress on the first syllable. The ph makes a plain f sound, and there is no trap in it for a child learning to say his own name.
Some speakers soften the second syllable to FIL-up, and the difference is small enough that nobody will correct you. The one thing worth deciding early is the spelling, since Philip and Phillip sound identical out loud.
Is Philip a Boy or Girl Name?
Philip is a boy name, and the federal records back that up rather than merely suggesting it. Girls do appear in them: 1,137 have been recorded with the name since 1880, about a third of one percent of everyone who has carried it, and the last year it turned up on the girls’ list at all was 1996, with five babies.
Parents who want the same root for a daughter usually land on Philippa, commonly shortened to Pippa, or the older Philomena. Both share the philos element without the horse.
Variations of Philip
Because the name traveled with both the church and the crown, Philip has a local form in nearly every European language. These are the ones you are most likely to meet:
- Felipe (Spanish)
- Philippe (French)
- Filippo (Italian)
- Philipp (German)
- Filippos (Greek)
- Filip (Swedish/Polish/Slavic)
- Pilib (Irish)
- Fülöp (Hungarian)
- Vilppu (Finnish)
- Pylyp (Ukrainian)
Felipe is the useful one to know if the name will be heard in Spanish as well as English, since it keeps the sound intact while looking entirely at home in either language.
Nicknames for Philip
Philip gives you more short forms than most two-syllable names, which matters more than parents expect: a boy who dislikes Phil at fourteen still has Pip and Flip waiting for him.
Common Nicknames:
- Phil: the plain, reliable standby.
- Pip: a literary favorite thanks to Dickens, youthful and quick.
- Philly: affectionate and soft, usually reserved for the toddler years.
Creative & Rare Nicknames:
- Flip: retro and energetic, with a bit of showman in it.
- Lip: edgy and modern, familiar from the series Shameless.
- Pippin: a whimsical extension of Pip, with a Lord of the Rings echo.
Names Similar to Philip
If you like Philip for its old-world manners and easy nickname, these sit in the same territory. A few of them share the reason, not just the feel:
- Arthur: a royal name with ancient roots and the same two-syllable, unhurried shape.
- Peter: another apostle’s name, plain-spoken and friendly, with the same biblical footing.
- Henry: shares the royal history and, like Philip, hands a boy a nickname that sounds nothing like the full name.
- Simon: a biblical name with the same plain-spoken, old-world feel as Philip.
- William: Philip’s closest match in British royal history, and a name with the same formal-to-casual range.
- Thomas: a sturdy classic that has never needed a revival because it never left.
- Edward: dignified and historic, offering Teddy the way Philip offers Pip.
- Timothy: Greek in origin like Philip, with the same biblical footing and a formal name that shortens just as easily, to Tim.
- Nathaniel: another biblical name with the same formal warmth and easy shortenings.
Names That Moved With Philip
These are the names whose popularity curves rose and fell alongside Philip in our own reading of federal birth data, matched across the last 45 years. They are not sound-alikes. They are the names a parent drawn to Philip has most likely already written down.
The three closest are the ones plotted above.
- Mark: peaked in 1960 and reached 6th in 1959. It sits at 245th today and is still easing down, the same long glide Philip made.
- Timothy: best rank of 11th in 1960, a high point in 1967, and 203rd in 2025. Its line tracks Philip’s almost year for year.
- Paul: ranked as high as 12th in 1916, peaked again in 1964, and stands at 262nd today.
Three more names move with Philip without appearing on the chart. Robert reached 1st in 1924 and ranks 92nd in 2025; Richard reached 5th in 1930 and ranks 234th; James, the outlier of the group, was 1st in 1940 and is still 6th in 2025, holding steady while the rest of the group drifted down. For a parent that is the useful read: Philip’s neighbors are all mid-century staples, so the name lands as familiar to grandparents and unusual to classmates at once.
Middle Names for Philip
Philip has two syllables and a soft ending, so it takes both long and short middle names comfortably. These are sorted by the style you are probably after.
Timeless & Royal Pairings
These lean on other established classics and sound like a full name read out at a graduation.
Modern & Crisp Pairings
A short, hard-ending middle name keeps Philip from sounding formal.
Surnames & Soft Pairings
A surname or nature word in the middle slot softens the royal edge.
Sibling Names for Philip
A name with this much history wants siblings that can stand next to it without sounding like a different decade.
For a Brother
Brothers to Philip work best when they share the traditional footing rather than the sound.
For a Sister
Sisters to Philip tend to be the long, formal names that shorten well, exactly as Philip does.
Famous People Named Philip
The name has been worn by soldiers, saints, novelists, and one very long-serving royal husband.
- Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: born in Corfu in 1921, he married Princess Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey in 1947, became the longest serving British consort in 2009, and carried out more than 22,000 solo engagements before his death in 2021 (3). He also founded the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in 1956, now running in more than 140 countries.
- Philip Seymour Hoffman: the American actor who won the Academy Award for best actor for playing Truman Capote in Capote, along with the SAG, BAFTA, and Golden Globe awards for the same role. He once described his own standard for the craft this way: “If you can go to the theatre, and you’re in a room with a bunch of other people, and what’s happening in front of you is not happening, but you actually believe it is. If I can do that, I’ve done my job.”
- Philip K. Dick: the science fiction author whose stories became Blade Runner and Total Recall.
- Phil Collins: English drummer and singer-songwriter, frontman of Genesis and a solo act in his own right.
- Philip Pullman: the British novelist behind the His Dark Materials trilogy.
- Philip Rivers: an American quarterback who played 17 seasons in the NFL.
- Phil Mickelson: nicknamed Lefty, one of the most decorated golfers of his era.
Philip in Pop Culture
Writers reach for Philip when a character needs to read as either princely or thoroughly ordinary, and the name obliges both ways.
- Prince Phillip: the prince who wakes Aurora in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty.
- Philip J. Fry: known simply as Fry, the well-meaning protagonist of Futurama.
- Uncle Phil (Philip Banks): the stern but warm father figure in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
- Philip “Lip” Gallagher: the brilliant, self-sabotaging eldest son in Shameless.
- Philip Marlowe: Raymond Chandler’s private detective, and the template for most that followed.
