Philips
A surname meaning “son of Philip,” from the personal name Philip.
The #5,118 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 45,138 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Philips is a patronymic surname built from the personal name Philip, with the final -s marking “son of” or belonging to Philip. The name Philip ultimately goes back through Latin and Greek to the Greek Philippos, meaning “lover of horses.” In English records, Philips appears as one of several spellings that developed from the same given name, alongside Phillips, Philipson, and related forms.
History
The surname spread in medieval England as a hereditary family name formed from the common given name Philip, which was introduced through Norman and continental Christian usage. Historical surname dictionaries group Philips with Phillips, Philipps, and Philipson as related descendants of the same root. The spelling without the double p is a standard variant, especially in British usage.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
19th-century surname scholars often treated Philips and Phillips as parallel spellings of the same underlying name rather than separate surnames.
From the historical record
“PHILIPPS PHILIPS PHILLIPPS PHILLIPS ■> \ V. Philip. PHILIPSON I Philip's Son phillipson;*^"'"^^*™ j PHILKIN, a dim. of Philip (q.v.) + the E. dim. suff. -kin. ,”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)Notable people named Philips
- Donovan (b. 1946)
Sourced from Wikidata; linked to their Wikipedia page.