Theophilus
The boy's name Theophilus has been in the national records since 1882, with 2,448 births to its name. In 2025 it ranked 2,390th. About 1,700 Theophiluses are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 24.
Popularity, 1880–2025
boys named Theophilus
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 2,448
- Estimated living today
- 1,700
- Median age today
- 24
- Peak year
- 2022
- Best rank
- 2,150th
- Rank in 2025
- 2,390th
- First recorded
- 1882
How old the living Theophiluses are
born that year still alive today
Of the 2,448 babies given the name since 1882, about 1,700 are alive — 70 in every hundred. Roughly 730 of them are children and 250 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 2001 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 Latin, from Ancient Greek
From Middle English Theophilus, from Latin Theophilus, from Ancient Greek Θεόφιλος, meaning "love of God" or "friend of God".
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Theophiluss
- Theophilus of Antioch (200–183)Patriarch of Antioch from c.169 to c.183
- John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683–1744)French-born British natural philosopher and clergyman
- Theophilus Ebenhaezer Dönges (1898–1968)former elected State President of South Africa who died before being able to take office
- Theophilus Presbyter (1070–1125)12th-century German monk and writer
- Theophilus of Edessa (695–785)Greek astrologer
- Theophilus Van Kannel (1841–1919)American engineer
- Theophilus of Adana (died 538)Byzantine saint
- Theophilus Siegfried Bayer (1694–1738)German sinologist
People named Theophilus with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Theophilus is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Theophilus is most concentrated in California (3.8×), Texas (2.2×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 2022
The most popular boys’ names the year Theophilus peaked:
Theophilus elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales boys | Theophilus | 163 | 1,706th |
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.
Theophilus 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 boys | Theophilus | — | 5 |
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
Theophilus 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.