Filip
From the Greek for "friend of horses". You almost certainly know a Filip: the name still sits inside Poland's top 100 for boys, though parents give it a little less each year now than they did at its 2010s peak.
Filip Pronunciation
Filip is pronounced FEE-leep (/ˈfilip/).
What Filip means
Where Filip comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Filip comes from the Greek Philippos, built from philos, loving or friendly, and hippos, horse. So the meaning holds plainly: friend of horses, or in Polish miłośnik koni. In a world where horses meant rank and wealth, such a name marked its bearer as noble company.
The most famous early Filip was Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander the Great, a king who did in fact breed and prize warhorses. The apostle Philip carried the name into Christian Europe, and that is how it reached Polish churches and calendars.
In Poland the variant Phillip shows up mostly in emigrant records and English spellings. Filip stays the home form. Read a school register today and you will find several of them in one class. The name-day falls on the third of May among other dates. Whatever else shifts, the root stays fixed: philos and hippos, a friend of horses.
How many people are named Filip
1 in 123 men in Poland is named Filip. 173,805 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #83 among male names.
Filip's popularity over time
2,663 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #21 among newborns. It has been stable for a decade.
Where Filip is most popular
Filip is most popular in Silesian, 21% above the national average (3,812 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+14%) and Subcarpathian (+11%). It is least common in Pomeranian and Greater Poland, 14% and 13% below average respectively.
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Silesian3,812 boys born+21%
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Opole724 boys born+14%
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Subcarpathian1,851 boys born+11%
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Lublin1,560 boys born+10%
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Lower Silesian2,301 boys born+6%
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Podlaskie968 boys born+6%
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Świętokrzyskie774 boys born+1%
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Lesser Poland3,128 boys born0%
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Łódź1,750 boys born0%
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West Pomeranian1,142 boys born−2%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian1,470 boys born−3%
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Warmian-Masurian946 boys born−5%
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Lubusz637 boys born−7%
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Masovian4,456 boys born−9%
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Greater Poland2,604 boys born−13%
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Pomeranian1,762 boys born−14%
Filip as a middle name
Filip is a first name for 173,805 men in Poland and a middle name for another 33,718, an 84/16 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 70th, between Bogusław (34,860) and Adrian (33,341).
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68
35,214Bartłomiej
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69
34,860Bogusław
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7033,718Filip
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71
33,341Adrian
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72
32,812Krystian
When Filip celebrates name day
Filip appears 6 times in the Polish name day calendar. The main date is 11 April.