Phillips

also Philips, Philipps, ap Phylip

Son of Philip, Welsh ap Phylip and Norman patronymic under one spelling.

Origin: South West, England
Famous bearer: Mark Phillips (b. 1948), British equestrian, Olympic gold medallist
Register: English family

This name is thick on both sides of the border, so the map shows the whole of the British Isles with every region it touches highlighted. It is a regional pattern for the surname, not proof that your branch lived in each place.

Territory of Phillips across England and Wales

CoreHistoric reach

The seat of Phillips

Seat vacant

Chief

No one leads the Phillips community yet. When the movement opens, you can stand for its leadership, or help elect whoever does.

Current mission

No shared goal set yet. Once Phillips has leadership, it sets the public focus: a restoration, a gathering, a real-world project that helps its own.

The Phillips clan is being rebuilt. Join the waiting list for the movement today, and you help decide who leads it and what it does.

Help rebuild the Phillips clan →

What does the Phillips name mean?

The history of Phillips

Phillips is in the top-50 surnames of England and the top-20 of Wales, the southern-Welsh distribution sits squarely in the old Norman marcher counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, where the Welsh patronymic ap Phylip mixed with the English Phillips of the same first-name root. Sir John Phillipps of Kilgetty (Pembrokeshire) was a notable late-17th-century Welsh philanthropist; the Phillipps of Picton Castle were the principal Pembrokeshire gentry line through the 18th and 19th centuries.

Mark Phillips (b. 1948), the British equestrian and former husband of Princess Anne, is the modern surname's most internationally visible bearer. Captain Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), note the single-l first-name spelling, was the founding Governor of New South Wales (1788) and effectively the founder of modern Australia. Lou Diamond Phillips (b. 1962), the American actor of La Bamba and Stand and Deliver, brings the surname into late-20th-century Hollywood. Wendell Phillips (1811–1884), the Boston-Irish-Phillips abolitionist orator, was among the central figures of the 19th-century American anti-slavery movement.

Champions of the Phillips name

The bearers whose lives are inseparable from this surname. Each has its own page — biography, achievements, geography, connection to the family.

Also found in

The Phillips name has substantial historical presence beyond England. See it on Wales.

Step Into History

Walk the streets and seats the Phillips name knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk London in 1818Enter →

St Paul's, Covent Garden and the gaslit West End — Regency London, soot-hazed and horse-drawn.

Notable bearers of the Phillips name

Mark Phillips (b. 1948), British equestrian, Olympic gold medallist
Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), founding Governor of New South Wales
Lou Diamond Phillips (b. 1962), American actor (La Bamba, Stand and Deliver)
Wendell Phillips (1811–1884), American abolitionist orator
Captain Richard Phillips (b. 1955), American Merchant Marine captain; held hostage and rescued from the MV Maersk Alabama, April 2009

Stories of Phillips

Captain Phillips and the Maersk Alabama rescue
2009
On the afternoon of Sunday the twelfth of April 2009, on the Indian-Ocean approximately 240 nautical miles south-east of the Somali coastal-port of Eyl in the Gulf-of-Aden Indian-Ocean operating-area, the fifty-four-year-old Underhill, Vermont-born Massachusetts-Maritime-Academy-trained American Merchant Marine captain Richard Phillips, the Master of the Danish-Maersk-Line container-ship MV Maersk Alabama (the 17,000-TEU container-ship on the Maersk-Line Mombasa-to-Mombasa Kenya-to-East-Africa container-trade-route), was rescued from the six-day-hostage-confinement aboard the Maersk-Alabama lifeboat-number-five by the three-United-States-Navy-SEAL-Team-Six sniper-team firing from the aft-fantail of the USS Bainbridge destroyer at approximately 7:19 PM Indian-Ocean-time. The three-Somali-pirate-captors who had been holding Phillips in the twenty-eight-foot-Maersk-Alabama lifeboat were killed simultaneously by the three-SEAL-sniper single-shot kill-pattern; Phillips was extracted unharmed and was taken aboard the Bainbridge for the medical-evaluation and the post-rescue debriefing. The Maersk-Alabama rescue ended the six-day Somali-pirate hijacking-and-hostage-situation that had opened on the morning of Wednesday the eighth of April 2009 with the Somali-pirate-skiff-attack-and-boarding of the Maersk-Alabama at the 235-nautical-mile-east-of-Somali-coast operating-area. The Maersk-Alabama hijacking-and-rescue was the first-successful-American-flag Merchant-Marine-rescue from the Somali-pirate-operating-area in the modern-Indian-Ocean-piracy-era, the first-American-Merchant-Marine-vessel hijacked by Somali pirates since 1815, and the foundational American-public-recognition-event of the modern Somali-piracy-crisis on the international-merchant-shipping-trade.
Read the story →

Frequently asked

What does the surname Phillips mean?

Patronymic, son of Philip (the Greek Philippos, 'horse-lover'). Two distinct compression streams converged in the modern surname spelling. (1) English Phillips: the Norman first name Philip, brought in with the Conquest, with the genitive 's' added in the standard English fashion. (2) Welsh ap Phylip: the Welsh patronymic 'son of Philip', densest in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire where the Norman first names embedded earliest in the Welsh marcher zones. The variant spellings Philipps and Philips are the same surname under different scribal conventions. Phillips is in the top-50 surnames of England and the top-20 of Wales, the southern-Welsh distribution sits squarely in the old Norman marcher counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, where the Welsh patronymic ap Phylip mixed with the English Phillips of the same first-name root.

Where does the Phillips family come from?

The Phillips family is rooted in South West, in England. Within that, the name was particularly concentrated in Cornwall, Devon, Somerset & Bristol and Gloucestershire. The atlas page for the name records the historical territory it has held over the centuries.

Where did the Phillips family historically hold territory?

At its greatest historical extent, the Phillips name has been concentrated in London, Birmingham & the Black Country, Warwickshire and Shropshire. The atlas page distinguishes the core territory of the name from this wider historical reach with hatched silhouettes on the map.

Is Phillips a England surname?

Phillips is primarily a England surname; it also has substantial historical presence in Wales. The editorial home of the name in this atlas is England, where the record is densest, with the cross-border presence noted under "Also found in".

How old is the Phillips surname?

Phillips is in the top-50 surnames of England and the top-20 of Wales, the southern-Welsh distribution sits squarely in the old Norman marcher counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, where the Welsh patronymic ap Phylip mixed with the English Phillips of the same first-name root. European hereditary surnames crystallised broadly between the 12th and 14th centuries, and the Phillips name took its modern form within that long settlement.

What is the Phillips family known for?

Son of Philip, Welsh ap Phylip and Norman patronymic under one spelling. Phillips is in the top-50 surnames of England and the top-20 of Wales, the southern-Welsh distribution sits squarely in the old Norman marcher counties of Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, where the Welsh patronymic ap Phylip mixed with the English Phillips of the same first-name root.

Who is the most famous Phillips?

The best-known bearer of the Phillips name is Mark Phillips (b. 1948), British equestrian, Olympic gold medallist. Other prominent figures of the family include Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), founding Governor of New South Wales, Lou Diamond Phillips (b. 1962), American actor (La Bamba, Stand and Deliver) and Wendell Phillips (1811–1884), American abolitionist orator.

Who are some famous Phillipses?

Notable bearers of the Phillips name include Mark Phillips (b. 1948), British equestrian, Olympic gold medallist, Arthur Phillip (1738–1814), founding Governor of New South Wales, Lou Diamond Phillips (b. 1962), American actor (La Bamba, Stand and Deliver), Wendell Phillips (1811–1884), American abolitionist orator and Captain Richard Phillips (b. 1955), American Merchant Marine captain; held hostage and rescued from the MV Maersk Alabama, April 2009. Each is profiled on the family page, with cross-links to the geography, stories, and historical events tied to their life.

What stories are told about the Phillips family?

The Phillips family is associated with Captain Phillips and the Maersk Alabama rescue. Each story has its own page on this site with the full account, the date, the location, and the other families involved.

What is the story of Captain Phillips and the Maersk Alabama rescue?

On the afternoon of Sunday the twelfth of April 2009, on the Indian-Ocean approximately 240 nautical miles south-east of the Somali coastal-port of Eyl in the Gulf-of-Aden Indian-Ocean operating-area, the fifty-four-year-old Underhill, Vermont-born Massachusetts-Maritime-Academy-trained American Merchant Marine captain Richard Phillips, the Master of the Danish-Maersk-Line container-ship MV Maersk Alabama (the 17,000-TEU container-ship on the Maersk-Line Mombasa-to-Mombasa Kenya-to-East-Africa container-trade-route), was rescued from the six-day-hostage-confinement aboard the Maersk-Alabama lifeboat-number-five by the three-United-States-Navy-SEAL-Team-Six sniper-team firing from the aft-fantail of the USS Bainbridge destroyer at approximately 7:19 PM Indian-Ocean-time. The three-Somali-pirate-captors who had been holding Phillips in the twenty-eight-foot-Maersk-Alabama lifeboat were killed simultaneously by the three-SEAL-sniper single-shot kill-pattern; Phillips was extracted unharmed and was taken aboard the Bainbridge for the medical-evaluation and the post-rescue debriefing. The event is dated to 2009.

Is Philips the same family as Phillips?

Yes. Philips is a historical spelling variant of the Phillips name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is Philipps the same family as Phillips?

Yes. Philipps is a historical spelling variant of the Phillips name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Is ap Phylip the same family as Phillips?

Yes. ap Phylip is a historical spelling variant of the Phillips name. The two share the same lineage and family affiliation; different parishes, clerks and migration registrars recorded the same name in slightly different forms, and the variant spellings sit on the same family tree.

Where is the Phillips surname found today?

England is the primary historical home of the Phillips surname. In the modern era, the name is also borne across the wider diaspora, particularly in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, where families carry the line of descent from the same England origin recorded on this page.

What does the Clan Rising page for the Phillips family cover?

The Clan Rising page for the Phillips family covers the meaning of the surname, the historical geography of the name, famous bearers of the name, traditional stories and the seat of the head of the family. Each section is linked to the underlying atlas of England so the name can be read in the geography that shaped it.

Who is the head of the Phillips family today?

The seat for the head of the Phillips family is currently vacant on this register. Clan Rising is rebuilding the chief and family structure for the modern era, and the family page allows readers to claim the seat or pledge to the name.