Phoenix
Phoenix is a unisex name: 567 girls and 1,027 boys were given it in 2025 (#534 among girls’ names and #329 among boys’, #430 among all names counting both); 40,635 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 40,300 Americans named Phoenix and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 16.
Phoenix is among the most evenly shared names of 2025: #18 of 43 unisex names by how close its split is to half and half.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Phoenix by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Phoenix mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Phoenix is “a male given name.”
From Latin phoenīx, Phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνῐξ (phoînĭx), Φοῖνῐξ (Phoînĭx).
/ˈfiːnɪks/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Phoenix?
#329 among boys’ names, 2025
Phoenix fell from #307 in 2015 to #329 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.61 to 0.60 per 1,000.
2,650 babies in 2020, the peak
Phoenix peaked in 2020, when 2,650 babies were given it (1,534 boys, #236 among boys’ names). The 1,594 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 60% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 567 | #534 | 1,027 | #329 |
| 2024 | 746 | #419 | 1,235 | #275 |
| 2023 | 871 | #349 | 1,259 | #269 |
| 2022 | 1,013 | #317 | 1,342 | #260 |
| 2021 | 1,038 | #311 | 1,446 | #247 |
| 2020 | 1,116 | #285 | 1,534 | #236 |
| 2019 | 1,027 | #313 | 1,422 | #256 |
| 2018 | 908 | #350 | 1,456 | #252 |
| 2017 | 861 | #362 | 1,349 | #267 |
| 2016 | 730 | #440 | 1,237 | #293 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 700 | #453 | 1,163 | #307 |
| 2014 | 637 | #491 | 914 | #354 |
| 2013 | 620 | #486 | 790 | #380 |
| 2012 | 514 | #572 | 795 | #380 |
| 2011 | 444 | #645 | 731 | #388 |
| 2010 | 436 | #666 | 766 | #376 |
| 2009 | 403 | #719 | 826 | #367 |
| 2008 | 425 | #706 | 744 | #397 |
| 2007 | 410 | #714 | 695 | #419 |
| 2006 | 336 | #812 | 675 | #422 |
| 2005 | 287 | #882 | 527 | #477 |
| 2004 | 280 | #880 | 418 | #552 |
| 2003 | 237 | #980 | 398 | #563 |
| 2002 | 150 | #1,305 | 321 | #617 |
| 2001 | 155 | #1,274 | 302 | #629 |
| 2000 | 137 | #1,365 | 180 | #876 |
| 1999 | 113 | #1,521 | 164 | #912 |
| 1998 | 110 | #1,528 | 159 | #906 |
| 1997 | 107 | #1,521 | 149 | #914 |
| 1996 | 98 | #1,594 | 116 | #1,053 |
| 1995 | 97 | #1,569 | 134 | #960 |
| 1994 | 80 | #1,803 | 122 | #1,003 |
| 1993 | 50 | #2,507 | 44 | #1,884 |
| 1992 | 36 | #3,192 | 33 | #2,284 |
| 1991 | 32 | #3,417 | 26 | #2,661 |
| 1990 | 41 | #2,833 | 25 | #2,673 |
| 1989 | 38 | #2,905 | 17 | #3,407 |
| 1988 | 20 | #4,435 | 10 | #4,692 |
| 1987 | 9 | #7,812 | under 5 | |
| 1986 | 9 | #7,558 | under 5 | |
| 1985 | 10 | #6,807 | under 5 | |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,998 | 5 | #7,042 |
| 1983 | 15 | #4,822 | under 5 | |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,444 | under 5 | |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,673 | under 5 | |
| 1980 | 18 | #4,262 | under 5 | |
| 1979 | 28 | #3,047 | 5 | #6,793 |
| 1978 | 27 | #2,995 | under 5 | |
| 1977 | 18 | #4,017 | under 5 | |
| 1976 | 17 | #3,916 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,306 | 5 | #6,077 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,937 | under 5 | |
| 1968 | under 5 | 5 | #4,589 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Phoenix a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 40,635 Americans recorded as Phoenix, 40% are girls and 60% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Phoenix: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Phoenix, and how old are they?
40,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 40,635 Americans ever recorded as Phoenix. The median Phoenix alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 16.
The 2020 Census counted 24,525 people named Phoenix (9,599 women and girls, 14,926 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 27,870 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 129 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,060 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 12,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 26,800 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Phoenix born?
The states with the most babies named Phoenix are Texas, California and Florida, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 159 | #344 | 0.8× |
| California | 132 | #386 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 85 | #389 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 78 | #249 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 71 | #334 | 1.1× |
| New York | 65 | #397 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 62 | #395 | 1.0× |
| Pennsylvania | 60 | #302 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 52 | #342 | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 50 | #296 | 1.1× |
Where Phoenix is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Phoenix is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1968 it was given 1.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Phoenix with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 40,764 babies since 1880, Phoenix is the most given (100% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,594 of their 1,594 babies (100%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Phoenix
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Phoenix and names like it
- Compare Phoenix and PhoenixxBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sPhoenix peaked in 2020.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Phoenix since 1910.
- The top names of 2020The year the most babies were named Phoenix.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Phoenix alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with PMost given first.