Greek2 syllablesRoyal
Meaning: lover of horses.
Philip
| Origin | Greek — from Philippos, the name of the kings of Macedon |
|---|---|
| Meaning | Lover of horses, from Greek philos (loving, dear) + hippos (horse) |
| Pronunciation | FIL-ip — two syllables, stress on the first |
| Popularity | Outside the current U.S. top 100. It was a top-100 American fixture for much of the twentieth century and is now well down, while Felipe and Filip stay busy abroad |
| Variants | Felipe (Spanish), Filipe (Portuguese), Filip (Polish, Czech, Scandinavian), Filippo, Philippe, Philipp, Pilib |
| Nicknames | Phil, Pip, Flip |
| Named after him | The Philippines, called Las Islas Filipinas in 1543 for the future Philip II of Spain |
History & meaning
You can take Philippos apart with a fingernail: philos, loving or dear, and hippos, horse. In archaic Greece horses meant cavalry and cavalry meant money, so this was a name for the class that could keep them. Philip II took the Macedonian throne in 359 BC, rebuilt the army around that principle, and handed the finished machine to his son Alexander, who used it on most of the known world. The name has never quite lost that background hum of command.
Christianity moved it out of Greece. One of the twelve apostles is Philip, and a second Philip, one of the seven deacons, baptises the Ethiopian court official on the Gaza road in Acts. Medieval France crowned six kings of the name and Spain another six; the Spanish Philip II collected an empire, and in 1543 Ruy López de Villalobos named a Pacific archipelago after him, which is why 115 million people live in the Philippines today. Britain has kept the name courtly, most recently through Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born a prince of Greece and Denmark and married to Elizabeth II for seventy-three years.
Why parents choose it
Philip is the classical name that never turned fussy. It has a soft opening, an unambiguous meaning that children actually enjoy, and Phil sitting inside it for any boy who would rather not carry three thousand years around at school. It is also one of the few names of this vintage that has not been picked up and worn out by a revival, so it currently reads as underused rather than dated — the same corner of the shelf as the classic names that are due a turn.
Middle names for Philip
Stress on the first syllable means the middle name should not repeat the trick: Philip Alexander is the obvious historical joke and it still sounds right, alongside Philip Andrew, Philip Nathaniel and Philip Rhys. See the middle names guide for the stress-pattern test.
Famous Philips
Philip Roth wrote thirty-one books and won most of the prizes that were going. Philip Glass changed what an opera could sound like, and Philip K. Dick supplied Hollywood with about a dozen films he never saw. Philip Larkin ran a university library in Hull and wrote poetry nobody else could have written. Philip Seymour Hoffman was the finest character actor of his generation.
Consider instead
Felipe is the same name with a Spanish spring in it and a reigning king behind it. Nicholas matches it almost exactly for Greek origin, saintly baggage and gentle sound. Frederick occupies the same courtly register and comes with better nicknames.