How popular is the name Phoebe?

[Anonymous106]

So I know it's in the top 30 UK girls names, but would she be one of several in her class? 🤔

I have 3 DCs all at primary, they each have a Phoebe in their class - if that helps!

I work at a nursery and there isn't one

A beautiful name

Nice name, never come across one in my DC classes etc

I know one Phoebe and she is 15. No Phoebe's in my kids school, 13,15 and 17.

Only one Phoebe i know of in DC's school and none at other DC's nursery. I don't think anyone would be able to predict it, the duplicate girls' names we've had are Isabella, Isabelle, Grace and Beatrice.

Name numbers of even popular names are smaller than they used to be as there's lots of variety. Not like Sarah or Laura back in the day.

I know a few but not lots.

It has the saving grace of being quite individual as a name. There are a lot of similar sounds which are popular, so e.g. while Ava and Eva are less popular individually, they seem to be around more. See also Emily, Amelie and Amelia, Harry and Henry, Leo and Theo.

It has the saving grace of being quite individual as a name. There are a lot of similar sounds which are popular, so e.g. while Ava and Eva are less popular individually, they seem to be around more. See also Emily, Amelie and Amelia, Harry and Henry, Leo and Theo.

This.
Ava, Eva, Evie, Ivy, Evelyn blur into 1.
Ellie, Ella, Bella, El- blur into 1.
Lily, Lila, Milly, Tilly, Lyra, Lyla, Mila, Isla ... samey

I’ve worked in a primary school since 2008 and in that time we’ve only had two Phoebes enrolled. Mind you, one spells it Pheobe - I’m not quite sure why!

There are currently three at the primary school I work in (none in the same year), two spelled correctly, one spelled Feebie 🙄

Hugely in this area. 10 a penny. (NW)

That is my daughter's name. She is in year 7 now and has never had another Phoebe in her class, and I only know of one other one when she was in Primary School in the year below.

Feebie?! 😳 why did no-one stop them?

Not very popular now. Was more popular ten years ago. Lovely name.

2 in my youngest sons class and none in my eldest sons class. It might be a regional thing

I know of one 16 year old girl and 3 dogs called Phoebe 😁

There’s never any guarantees, but it’s unlikely that she’ll be one of several Phoebe’s in her class.

In 2024, Phoebe was ranked as the 17th most popular girls name in England and Wales. The graph in the link below shows that between 0.25% and 0.3% of babies that year were named Phoebe.
Even if you double that % - because half the babies born would be boys - that’s still less than 1% of girls born in 2024 named Phoebe. So less than 1 in every 100 girls in England and Wales named Phoebe.

(And for context, the most popular girls name in 2024, Olivia, was given to a bit less than 0.5% of babies, so around 1% of girls. So even if Phoebe leaps in popularity, it’s not likely to be given to a massive proportion of girls.)

I know names can occur in clusters, all the little Phoebe’s won’t be spread evenly across the country, but even so, that’s a frequency low enough that you’re not likely to be falling over Phoebe’s even if your area had more Phoebe’s than the average.

Phoebe name popularity

There are never any guarantees, but it’s unlikely that she’ll be one of several Phoebes in her class.
She's unlikely to be the only Phoebe around. It's been a top 50 name for nearly 30 years, and a top 30 name for about 20 so there are 1000s of them.

I work in a school of 300
No Phoebe

There’s a world of difference between being the only Phoebe around, and being one of several Phoebe’s in a class.

It’s the “several Phoebe’s in a class” scenario that OP was asking about.

It’s gorgeous.
there is one is all my children’s classes tho!

@CaptainCallisto OH NO!!! What a way to ruin a beautiful nam!

I reckon this was a spelling mistake and parents hadn't realised it wasn't supposed to be spelt that way 🤣

I don't think there is. We didn't have duplicated names in school classes, but in the school friendship group we had several duplicated names. e.g. 3 Catherines, 2 Emmas and 2 Sarahs.

Mine is 13 and there is one other in her school of ~600