Name Awesome

Phylis

Girls' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Phylis has been given to 3,342 babies in the U.S. since 1896. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1949, with 109 recorded.

Babies named Phylis, 1985

1 in 714,000

Phylis over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Phylis: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Phylis means

Phylis is a given name.

The naming story behind Phylis

Wikidata records Phylis as a female given name. The entity identifier is Q120135271, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,342 girls were recorded with the name Phylis between 1896 and 1985. Its highest annual count was 109 in 1949; its best national rank was #791 in 1943.

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 Phylis?

Phylis had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1985, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1985
1 in 714,000
5 of 3,568,740 births
Among girls only
1 in 344,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1985
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
494,734 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Phylis sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1985 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 494,734 children born in 1985 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Phylis. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Phyliss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Phylis was born before 1943 — so the typical Phylis is around 82 today.

Median birth year
1943
About 82 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
25.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.5%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,051
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 25.6% of all recorded uses (857).

Is Phylis 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
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1949 (109)
Years since peak
76
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
21.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#791
1943

Spellings of Phylis

Phylis is not the most common spelling — Phyllis is, with 96.3% against Phylis's 1.00%.

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 Phylis is used

Across 1910–2025, Phylis was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 149,577 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 50,000
  2. 2Illinois1 in 100,000
  3. 3Indiana1 in 100,000
  4. 4Kentucky1 in 100,000
  5. 5Massachusetts1 in 100,000
  6. 6Michigan1 in 100,000
  7. 7Missouri1 in 100,000
  8. 8New Jersey1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Phylis has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Phylis around the world

Where Phylis 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.

  • South Australia
    1944–1960
    #617
    in 1960

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Phylis by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#791
1943
Peak year
1949
109 that year
First recorded
1896
Last recorded
1985
All-time count
3,342
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Phylis

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

OdalisPhyllisHollisKelisPhylissArelisIdalisDallisEllisPhyillisAnalisWallisPhyliciaPhillisYarelisYanelisNayelisAracelisMarlisWillisAmaryllisAnelisLillisJanelis

Names with a curve like Phylis

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Phylis, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

GeorgineGeorgeneGaynellMarilouMaryleeGeorgettaEarleanGlennisJeraldineCarylEarthaVonnie

Sibling names for Phylis

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 Phylis

Top names of 1949, Phylis's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1943Girls' names starting with P