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Phillip vs Phillis

American parents have registered 312,891 Phillips since 1880, against 3,683 Phillises. Phillip is still ahead, with 425 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Phillip against Phillis, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Phillip Phillis

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Phillip has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1898, when Phillip had 86 and Phillis had 11.

Side by side

  Phillip Phillis
Total US births 312,8913,683
Most in one year 6,076118
Babies in 2025 425under 5
Estimated living today 227,0002,000
Median age today 5169
Peak year 19601949
Best rank 66th boys800th girls
Rank in 2025 651stunranked
First recorded 18801882
Girls / boys 1,330 / 311,5613,677 / 6

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Phillises alive today are over 69; half the Phillips are over 51. That is 18 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Phillip and Phillis.