Phillips

Phillips One-Name Study

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Study details

Study: Phillips

Variants: Fillips, Mcphillips, Philipps, Philips, Phillipson

Category: 1 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is in its early stages.

DNA website: www.one-name-study.phillipsdnaproject.com/

Contact: Ms Nancy Kiser

About the study

The Phillips One-Name Study commenced officially in 2009 when we were registered as a one-name study by GOONS; however, the roots of this study go back to 2004 when a Phillips DNA project was organized through Family Tree DNA, a commercial DNA testing company. As of May 2025, we have nearly 1500 participants in the Phillips DNA project and more than 100 distinct, unrelated Phillips families in the UK, the USA, Canada and other countries have been identified through DNA analysis.

Variant names

Variants of the name that have been registered with GOONS are Fillips, Phillips, Philips, Philipps, Phillipson, and McPhillips.

Name origin

The surname Phillips and its many variations are believed to be patronymic surnames, which mean they are derived from the male first name Philip or Phillip. The website Behind the Name states that the first name Philip or Phillip is from the Greek, and it means 'friend of horses' or 'lover of horses'. DNA analysis of over 1000 men named Phillips or some variation of Phillips indicates a great many unrelated men who had fathers named Philip or Phillip adopted some variation of the surname Phillips (meaning son of Philip or Phillip) as permanent surnames gradually came into general use in Europe from 1000 AD to 1800 AD.

Historical occurrences of the name

One of the twelve apostles was Saint Philip. Philip was also the name of an early figure in the Christian church, spoken of in the New Testament. The name was bestowed on six kings of France, five kings of Spain, and five kings of Macedonia, including Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. Philip or Phillip was an extremely popular first name in medieval times. A list of famous people surnamed Phillips may be found at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillips

Name frequency

The website Behind the Name states that Phillips is the 43rd most common surname in England and Wales and the 45th most common surname in the United States. According to The World Book of Phillips, Volume 1, in 1993 there were 153,965 Phillips heads of households in the USA; 56,102 in the Great Britain; 16,103 in Australia; 8,340 in Canada; 2,453 in New Zealand; 1,134 in Ireland; 421 in Germany; 29 in Switzerland; and 13 in Austria. The Dictionary of American Family Names published by the Oxford University Press says the surname Phillips can be English, Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Dutch, North German and even Jewish (western Ashkenazic).

Data

There are over 1000 individual Phillips family pedigrees posted on our yLineages page at our Phillips DNA project website. There are also over 1000 yDNA haplotypes posted on our yResults page at our Phillips DNA project website. In addition, I maintain a large personal database of information on various Phillips families. I would be happy to search my database for information on your Phillips family. Please contact me for details.

DNA

Along with two co-administrators named Tom Hutchison and Virginia Phillips-Smith, I am the volunteer administrator of a Phillips DNA Project hosted by Family Tree DNA (FTDNA) with a courtesy website provided by FTDNA at this link:

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/phillips/default.aspx

In addition, we maintain an independent website at this link: http://www.phillipsdnaproject.com/

We set up the independent website so that we could accept DNA results from any testing company, not just FTDNA. Also, our independent website is more flexible than our courtesy website at FTDNA. That flexibility allows us to post pedigrees, pictures, stories, news items and provide many other benefits for our members.

Links

The Phillips One-Name-Study website can be found at:

http://www.one-name-study.phillipsdnaproject.com/

The Phillips DNA project websites can be found at:

http://www.phillipsdnaproject.com/

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/phillips/default.aspx

Contact Details

Ms Nancy Kiser

General Search Results

Occurrences of the surname Phillips in the Guild Indexes

(Click on the number to view the search results in each index. Indexes marked by * are only accessible by logged in Guild members.)

Global Marriages (public) 4842
Global Marriages (members)* 5024
Inscriptions Index 44
Modern Newspaper Index 171
Probate Index* 416
Datastores (public) 175
Datastores (members)* 24
Study materials for the study Phillips* 8
References to the name Phillips in the Guild Journal 1

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