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Philo

#11,659 in 2025Boys' name

Lover, friend

Philo has been given to 390 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #11,659 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2017, with 13 recorded.

Babies named Philo, 2025

1 in 553,000

Philo over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05101518801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Philo: meaning, origin, and history

Lover, friend

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Philo means

Philo means “lover, friend”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Philo is used in Ancient Greek (Latinized).

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 390 boys were recorded with the name Philo between 1880 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 13 in 2017; its best national rank was #973 in 1881.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #9,333 in 2020 to #11,659 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #11,729 in 2015 to #11,659 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Philo?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 553,000
6 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 285,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#11,659
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
382,984 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Philo 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 382,984 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Philo. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Philos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Philo was born before 1938 — so the typical Philo is around 87 today.

Median birth year
1938
About 87 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
20.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
37.2%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
174
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 20.8% of all recorded uses (81).

Is Philo 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
−3,492
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,326
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+70
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.00×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
46.2%
Peak was 2017 (13)
Years since peak
8
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
22.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#973
1881

Spellings of Philo

Philo is not the most common spelling — Philip is, with 71.0% against Philo's 0.08%.

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 Philo is used

Across 1910–2025, Philo was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,181,988 across all states with data. It was least common in Michigan (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Michigan1 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. Philo has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Philo around the world

Where Philo 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
    2020–2021
    #4,789
    in 2021

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Philo by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#11,659
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,326
Best rank ever
#973
1881
Peak year
2017
13 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
390
Count in 2025
6

Names similar to Philo

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

KailoPhillEmiloNiloKamiloPhilippShiloPhinehasPhiCiriloMailoPhilemonKiloPhinneasMuriloPhineasPhilmorePhilipePhillpMihailoRiloPhillipeSiloPhinn

Sibling names for Philo

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 Philo

Top names of 2017, Philo's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881Boys' names starting with P