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Philemon

#8,075 in 2025Boys' name

Kindly, affectionate

Philemon has been given to 925 babies in the U.S. since 1916. In 2025 it ranked #8,075 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2017, with 24 recorded.

Babies named Philemon, 2025

1 in 332,000

Philemon over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Philemon: meaning, origin, and history

Kindly, affectionate

Ancient Greek

What Philemon means

Philemon means “kindly, affectionate”, associated with philḗmōn.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Ancient Greek Φιλήμων (Philḗmōn), from φιλήμων (philḗmōn, “kindly, affectionate”), from φιλέω (philéō, “to love”).

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Philemon (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Philemon is used in English. Its origins include Ancient Greek.

Philemon comes through Ancient Greek Φιλήμων.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Philemon is pronounced /fɪˈliːmən/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 925 boys were recorded with the name Philemon between 1916 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 24 in 2017; its best national rank was #2,198 in 1969.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #6,928 in 2020 to #8,075 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #5,919 in 2015 to #8,075 in 2025.

How common is Philemon?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 332,000
10 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 171,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#8,075
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
229,791 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Philemon sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 229,791 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Philemon. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Philemons were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Philemon was born before 1985 — so the typical Philemon is around 40 today.

Median birth year
1985
About 40 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
15.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
32.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
745
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 15.4% of all recorded uses (142).

Is Philemon rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
+2,577
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1,147
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,156
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.67×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
41.7%
Peak was 2017 (24)
Years since peak
8
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
40.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,198
1969

Spellings of Philemon

Philemon is the most-used spelling, taking 64.3% of the 1,439 babies given a near-identical spelling.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Philemon is used

Across 1910–2025, Philemon was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,490,386 across all states with data.

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Philemon has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Philemon around the world

Where Philemon ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1997–2017
    #4,812
    in 2017
  • France
    1900–2025
    #6,104
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1999–2024
    #1,536
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1982–1982
    #424
    in 1982

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Philemon by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#8,075
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1,147
Best rank ever
#2,198
1969
Peak year
2017
24 that year
First recorded
1916
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
925
Count in 2025
10

Names similar to Philemon

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

PhinehasPhilippPhilippePhilbertPhillipsPhillipePhinneasPhineasCaedmonPhilmoreDezmonDaimonDesmonPhiloPhilanderPhilopaterJermonDaymonThurmonSalomonDaemonPhillippePhilmonThermon

Sibling names for Philemon

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Philemon

Top names of 2017, Philemon's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1969Boys' names starting with P