Phoebe
About 43,663 American babies have been named Phoebe since 1880, most of them around 2025. In 2025 it ranked 157th. About 36,000 Phoebes are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 14.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Phoebe boys named Phoebe
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 43,663
- Estimated living today
- 36,000
- Median age today
- 14
- Peak year
- 2025
- Best rank
- 157th
- Rank in 2025
- 157th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 43,658 / 5
How old the living Phoebes are
born that year still alive today
Of the 43,663 babies given the name since 1880, about 36,000 are alive — 82 in every hundred. Roughly 21,000 of them are children and 2,100 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2011 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Ancient Greek
from Ancient Greek Φοίβη, feminine form of Φοῖβος (“bright”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Phoebes
- Phoebe Tonkin (born 1989)Australian actress
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge (born 1985)English actress, screenwriter and producer
- Phoebe Cates (born 1963)American actress, model, and entrepreneur
- Phoebe Bridgers (born 1994)American musician
- Phoebe Dynevor (born 1995)English actress
- Phoebe Snow (1952–2011)American singer, songwriter and guitarist
- Phoebe Fox (born 1987)British actress
- Phoebe Hearst (1842–1919)American philanthropist, feminist and suffragist
People named Phoebe with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Phoebe is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Phoebe is most concentrated in New Hampshire (2.0×), Maine (2.0×), Vermont (2.0×), Utah (1.9×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2025
The most popular girls’ names the year Phoebe peaked:
Phoebe elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales girls | Phoebe | 49,148 | 26th |
| New Zealand girls | Phoebe | 1,723 | 45th |
| Scotland girls | Phoebe | 1,604 | 45th |
| France girls | Phoebe +1 spelling | 1,010 | 747th |
| Ireland girls | Phoebe | 899 | 78th |
| Northern Ireland girls | Phoebe | 875 | 25th |
| Belgium girls | Phoebe | 419 | 292nd |
| Switzerland girls | Phoebe | 134 | 539th |
| Poland girls | Phoebe | 15 birth registrations | 400th |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
Phoebe: births by region
| Region | Country | Spelling | Births | Share of the region | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| German girls | Switzerland | Phoebe | 85 | 0.007% | 595th |
| French girls | Switzerland | Phoebe | 45 | 0.010% | 308th |
| Italian girls | Switzerland | Phoebe | 4 | 0.006% | 192nd |
Parts of a country counted above, not extra births. The share is what makes the regions comparable: they differ in size by a factor of three hundred.
Phoebe: rank by region
In 2021, Phoebe was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flanders | Phoebe | 626 | 8 |
In 2016, Phoebe was among the 10 most common names in 1 region of Italy.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Valle d'Aosta/Vallée d'Aoste | Phoebe | 10 | 1 |
In 2023, Phoebe was given 2 times or more in 1 region of Poland.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zachodniopomorskie | Phoebe | 176 | 2 |
In 2021, with the country taken in 11 areas rather than 3, Phoebe appears in the lists for Province of Antwerp (342nd).
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children, Italy after 10 names, Poland below 2 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
Phoebe by city
| City | Years | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin girls | 2017–2023 | 2 | 552nd |
One city over a few years, so these are much smaller numbers than the national ones above and not comparable with them.
Phoebe among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland girls | Phoebe | 27 | 35 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Related names
Phoebe against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.