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Philip

Greek at root, meaning "friend of horses." The English-styled spelling of Filip stays rare in Poland and is fading fast: fewer boys get it each year, and most Poles have never met one.

Philip Pronunciation

Related names
Filip
Alive in 2025
2,072
Newborns 2025
6
National rank
#696

What Philip means

Where Philip comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Philip comes from the Greek Philippos, a compound of philos, meaning friend or loving, and hippos, a horse. The literal sense is friend of horses. Among the Greeks a horse signalled wealth and rank, so the name pointed to households that could afford to keep and ride them.

History gave the name early muscle. Philip II of Macedon built the army his son Alexander would drive across the known world, and the orator Demosthenes attacked him in speeches still called the Philippics. Then came the apostle Philip, and the name travelled with the church into most of Europe. In English it settled without fuss, carried by Sir Philip Sidney, the Elizabethan poet and soldier, and in the last century by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

In Poland the name shifts by one letter and becomes Filip, the form a teacher calls out from the class register. The spelling is plainer. The meaning holds: Filip is still the friend of horses, from hippos, the Greek word for horse.

How many people are named Philip

1 in 10302 men in Poland is named Philip. 2,072 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #696 among male names.

People with the name Philip 2019 → 2025
2,072 +601 since 2019
2020 1,536 +65
2021 1,610 +74
2022 1,736 +126
2023 1,853 +117
2024 1,959 +106
2025 2,072 +113

Philip's popularity over time

6 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #887 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #696 name among living men, even as it slips to #887 among newborns.

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6 newborns with the name Philip in 2025
national rank #887 that year

Where parents choose Philip

Philip is most popular in Silesian, 343% above the national average (14 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Lubusz (+190%) and Podlaskie (+119%). It is least common in Lesser Poland and Masovian, 37% and 19% below average respectively.

Chosen most
  • Silesian
    +343%
    1 in 16,256 babies
  • Lubusz
    +190%
    1 in 24,829 babies
  • Podlaskie
    +119%
    1 in 32,893 babies
Chosen least
  • Lesser Poland
    −37%
    1 in 113,458 babies
  • Masovian
    −19%
    1 in 88,566 babies

Philip as a middle name

Philip is a first name for 2,072 men in Poland and a middle name for another 546, a 79/21 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 306th, between Felicjan (548) and Kewin (545).

As a first name
2,072
As a middle name
546
first name 79% middle name 21%
Middle-name ranking men

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