How popular is the baby name Philip in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Philip.

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Popularity of the baby name Philip


Posts that mention the name Philip

Popular baby names in Norway, 2024

Flag of Norway
Flag of Norway

Last year, the Scandinavian country of Norway welcomed 54,013 babies — 26,129 girls and 27,884 boys.

What were the most popular names among these babies? Nora and Lucas.

Here are Norway’s top 50 girl names and top 50 boy names of 2024:

Girl names

  1. Nora/Norah/Noora, 385 baby girls
  2. Emma, 379
  3. Olivia/Oliwia, 342
  4. Sofie/Sophie, 329
  5. Ella, 324
  6. Maja/Maya/Maia, 307 (tie)
  7. Sofia/Sophia, 307 (tie)
  8. Leah/Lea, 303
  9. Selma, 291
  10. Ellinor/Elinor, 280
  11. Hedda, 277
  12. Alma, 268
  13. Frida, 264
  14. Iben, 253
  15. Ingrid, 249
  16. Astrid/Astri, 248
  17. Emilie, 245
  18. Sara/Sarah/Zara, 242
  19. Mia, 239
  20. Ada, 238
  21. Lilly/Lily, 225
  22. Tiril/Tirill, 215
  23. Amalie, 205
  24. Aurora, 194
  25. Hedvig, 191 (tie)
  26. Jenny/Jennie, 191 (tie)
  27. Josefine/Josephine, 189
  28. Ellie/Elli/Elly, 185
  29. Eva, 179
  30. Hennie/Henny, 178
  31. Hanna/Hannah, 174
  32. Vilde, 170
  33. Mathilde/Matilde, 167
  34. Anna, 164
  35. Live, 158 (tie)
  36. Saga, 158 (tie)
  37. Tuva, 157
  38. Solveig/Solvei, 152
  39. Linnea/Linea, 151
  40. Ida, 147
  41. Sigrid, 144
  42. Amelia, 141
  43. Thea, 138
  44. Marie, 136
  45. Mille, 135
  46. Eline, 133
  47. Eira, 130 (tie)
  48. Signe, 130 (tie)
  49. Mie, 124
  50. Hermine, 121

Boy names

  1. Lucas/Lukas, 431 baby boys
  2. Noah/Noa, 402
  3. Oliver, 398
  4. Emil, 396
  5. Jakob/Jacob, 386
  6. William, 360
  7. Theodor/Teodor, 356
  8. Ludvig/Ludvik/Ludwig, 336
  9. Liam, 330
  10. Johannes, 322
  11. Elias, 319
  12. Isak/Isaac/Isac, 316
  13. Filip/Philip/Fillip/Phillip, 312
  14. Oskar/Oscar, 310
  15. Olav, 298
  16. Henrik, 292
  17. Aksel/Axel, 290
  18. Theo/Teo, 275
  19. Kasper/Casper/Kacper, 272
  20. Tobias, 267
  21. Magnus, 264
  22. Ulrik, 250
  23. Adam, 247
  24. Matheo, 246
  25. Gustav, 234 (tie)
  26. Muhammad/Mohammad/Mohammed/Mohamed/Muhammed/Mohamad, 234 (tie)
  27. Alfred, 228
  28. Herman/Hermann, 210
  29. Håkon/Haakon, 204
  30. Mathias/Matias/Mattias, 203
  31. Sander, 197 (tie)
  32. Sverre, 197 (tie)
  33. Even, 195 – looks like Evan, but actually comes from the Old Norse name Eyvindr
  34. Mikkel, 194
  35. Viktor/Victor/Wiktor, 193
  36. Leo, 187
  37. Felix, 184
  38. Vetle, 178
  39. Birk, 177
  40. Leon, 176
  41. Iver, 173
  42. Edvin/Edwin, 170 (tie)
  43. Odin, 170 (tie)
  44. Johan, 169
  45. Luca/Luka, 165
  46. Benjamin, 163
  47. Jens, 159
  48. Jonas, 158
  49. Alexander/Aleksander, 157
  50. Markus/Marcus, 146

Interestingly, “almost every fifth child” born in Norway last year received a double name. The most popular combination was Emma Sofie, which was given to 14 baby girls.

I didn’t post about Norway’s top baby names of 2023, but here are Norway’s 2022 rankings.

Sources: Statistikk om Navn – Statistics Norway, Sjekk listen over de mest populære navnene i 2024 – SSB, Births – Statistics Norway

Image: Adapted from Flag of Norway (public domain)

Baby name story: Daehlie

Bjørn Dæhlie greeting Philip Boit at the 1998 Winter Olympics
Bjørn Dæhlie greeting Philip Boit

Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie (pronounced DAHL-ee) placed first in the men’s 10km classic at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

He held off going to the medal ceremony, though, until Kenyan skier Philip Boit — a former middle-distance runner who, after switching sports, became the very first Kenyan to compete at the Winter Games — crossed the finish line in last place, twenty minutes later.

Philip Boit welcomed his first child, a baby boy, just weeks after the Olympics. The baby’s name? Daehlie, after Bjørn Dæhlie. As Boit explained,

All my friends and family said he had to be a very good-hearted man because he waited for me in Nagano, and that I should keep his name in my family.

Philip Boit went on to have three more children: Olympia, Faith, and Alex.

P.S. Philip Boit’s uncle, middle-distance runner Mike Boit, competed alongside Kipchoge Keino at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

Sources:

Image: Screenshot of the 1998 Winter Olympics

Where did the baby name Kessel come from in 2017?

Hockey player Phil Kessel
Phil Kessel

The rare name Kessel was a one-hit wonder in the U.S. baby name data in 2017:

  • 2019: unlisted
  • 2018: unlisted
  • 2017: 5 baby boys named Kessel [debut]
  • 2016: unlisted
  • 2015: unlisted

Where did it come from?

Professional hockey player Philip “Phil” Kessel.

During the second half of the 2010s, Kessel played with the Pittsburgh Penguins (alongside teammate Sidney Crosby). The team won the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons: 2016 and 2017.

The name Kessel does not appear anywhere in the SSA’s state-by-state data, meaning that Pennsylvania was not the birthplace of all five of the baby boys named Kessel (curiously). We do know that at least one of the winger’s namesakes was born inside the Keystone State, though — to Pittsburgh parents Nicole and Adam Hillman. Their baby boy, Kessel Ryan Hillman, arrived in May of 2017 (during the Eastern Conference Finals).

The German surname Kessel is derived from a Middle High German word meaning “kettle, cauldron.” It originally referred to a person who made copper cooking vessels.

What are your thoughts on Kessel as a first name?

Sources:

Image: Adapted from Phil Kessel 2017-06-08 by Michael Miller under CC BY-SA 4.0.

What brought the baby name Aloma back in the early 1940s?

Movie poster for "Aloma of the South Seas" (1941)
“Aloma of the South Seas” poster

In 1941, the name Aloma re-emerged in the U.S. baby name data after a brief absence. It went on to achieve peak usage the very next year:

  • 1944: 40 baby girls named Aloma
  • 1943: 103 baby girls named Aloma [rank: 762nd]
  • 1942: 147 baby girls named Aloma [rank: 616th]
  • 1941: 47 baby girls named Aloma
  • 1940: unlisted
  • 1939: unlisted

It also managed to reach the girls’ top 1,000 twice.

What was drawing attention to the name Aloma around that time?

The movie Aloma of the South Seas, which was released in August of 1941.

The main character was Tanoa (played by Jon Hall), a young man from a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean. After spending many years abroad, Tanoa returned home upon the death of his father, the chief. Soon after, Tanoa fell in love with a fellow islander named Aloma (Dorothy Lamour). But Tanoa also had a villainous cousin named Revo (Philip Reed), who coveted both the lady and the throne…

Plot-wise, the movie didn’t have much in common with the 1926 silent film of the same name, which featured dancer Gilda Gray as Aloma. The original film was based on the Broadway play Aloma of the South Seas (1925) by LeRoy Clemens and John B. Hymer.

The 1941 version did, however, end with a spectacular volcanic eruption. It also earned a pair of Academy Award nominations (for cinematography and special effects). Oh, and one of the screenwriters happened to be former actress Seena Owen.

What are your thoughts on the baby name Aloma?

Sources: Aloma of the South Seas (1941 film) – Wikipedia, Aloma of the South Seas (1941) – TCM, SSA

Image: Movie poster for Aloma of the South Seas