Skip to main content

Phoebe

Barely 90 people in Poland carry it, so most will never meet one. The name comes from Greek and means bright and pure.

Phoebe Pronunciation

Alive in 2025
92
Newborns 2025
<2
National rank
#3645

What Phoebe means

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

Phoebe comes from the Greek Phoibe, built on phoibos, meaning bright and radiant. In Greek myth she was a Titaness, grandmother of Apollo and Artemis, linked to the moon and to old oracles. The name already meant light before anyone in England used it.

The reading offered here, bright and pure, begins with that brightness. Purity was attached to the name later, drawn from the clear, cloudless quality the Greek word describes. The light came first.

There is a documented early bearer. In Romans 16:1, Paul calls Phoebe a deacon of the church at Cenchreae and asks the Romans to welcome her. That is one of the earliest women given the title in writing. English families took up the name centuries on, and it has stayed in steady use since. It is short, plain to say, easy on a class register. What it holds onto is the first sense, bright.

How many people are named Phoebe

1 in 245042 women in Poland is named Phoebe. 92 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3645 among female names.

People with the name Phoebe 2019 → 2025
92 +40 since 2019
2020 54 +2
2021 56 +2
2022 61 +5
2023 68 +7
2024 80 +12
2025 92 +12

Phoebe's popularity over time

Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been climbing since 2025.

hover a bar to explore
<2 newborns with the name Phoebe in 2025
below the publication floor that year

Where Phoebe is most popular

Phoebe is most popular in West Pomeranian, 2460% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025).

More common than average Less common than average

Phoebe as a middle name

Phoebe is a first name for 92 women in Poland and a middle name for another 23, an 80/20 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 1499th, between Natali (23) and Rana (23).

As a first name
92
As a middle name
23
first name 80% middle name 20%

Look up another name

Search the register, or step through the ranking one place at a time.