A name. A world of connections.

Philomela

“love” + “apple; fruit; sheep”

Language contexts for this entry: English, Latin

feminineLatin script

[fi.loˈmɛː.la] · Latin (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)

Origin: Ancient Greek
2 language contexts: English Latin
Follow the evidence: 3 cited sources Source-reported

01 / Meaning & origin

About Philomela

Philomela is a feminine given name documented in English and Latin. English Wiktionary traces it to Ancient Greek Φιλομήλη via Latin, from the components “love” + “apple; fruit; sheep”.

Ancient Greek origin

Source-reported

Meaning: “love” + “apple; fruit; sheep”

From Latin Philomela, from Ancient Greek Φιλομήλη (Philomḗlē), from φίλος (phílos, “love”) + μῆλον (mêlon, “apple; fruit; sheep”), but folk-etymologized since at least Ovid's time as "lover of song".

Follow the language links in this account

Read from more recent borrowed forms toward older source forms. This is a derivation account, not a dated timeline.

Latin
Ancient Greek

Only explicit language links are shown. The full passage may also discuss word roots, comparisons or uncertain proposals.

Read the cited Wiktionary entry

Sources for this account (2)

Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15
Turkish Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-14

02 / Across borders

Where Philomela is used

Explore published naming statistics and documented language connections around the world.

The name atlas

Across borders

countries in our sources

Select a country to follow Philomela’s connections around the world.

1 country with published statistics. Language records show cultural connections; they do not measure how common a name is.

Selected country

United States

Language records

Documented as a given name in English.

Explore United States

4 of 10 countries

03 / By the numbers

Popularity over time

Follow the spelling through the years, one published dataset at a time.

South Australia

1944–2017 Spelling: PHILOMELA

Region and dataset

Recorded category girls

Latest · 1959: 1; births; Rank #625
Peak year: 1959; 1 births

Hover to explore a year. Use arrow keys when a chart point has focus.

Source: Attorney-General's Department, South Australia · South Australia — Popular Baby Names, per-year lists including names given once, 1944-2017

No rounding stated; amounts are integers (valueStatus=observed).

Per million is unavailable: this source has no matching published total.

Show the data table

PHILOMELA in South Australia, girls: births and rank by year
Year	Births	Rank	Status
1944	no value	no value	not covered
1945	no value	no value	not covered
1946	no value	no value	not covered
1947	no value	no value	not covered
1948	no value	no value	not covered
1949	no value	no value	not covered
1950	no value	no value	not covered
1951	no value	no value	not covered
1952	no value	no value	not covered
1953	no value	no value	not covered
1954	no value	no value	not covered
1955	no value	no value	not covered
1956	no value	no value	not covered
1957	no value	no value	not covered
1958	no value	no value	not covered
1959	1	625	observed
1960	no value	no value	not covered
1961	no value	no value	not covered
1962	no value	no value	not covered
1963	no value	no value	not covered
1964	no value	no value	not covered
1965	no value	no value	not covered
1966	no value	no value	not covered
1967	no value	no value	not covered
1968	no value	no value	not covered
1969	no value	no value	not covered
1970	no value	no value	not covered
1971	no value	no value	not covered
1972	no value	no value	not covered
1973	no value	no value	not covered
1974	no value	no value	not covered
1975	no value	no value	not covered
1976	no value	no value	not covered
1977	no value	no value	not covered
1978	no value	no value	not covered
1979	no value	no value	not covered
1980	no value	no value	not covered
1981	no value	no value	not covered
1982	no value	no value	not covered
1983	no value	no value	not covered
1984	no value	no value	not covered
1985	no value	no value	not covered
1986	no value	no value	not covered
1987	no value	no value	not covered
1988	no value	no value	not covered
1989	no value	no value	not covered
1990	no value	no value	not covered
1991	no value	no value	not covered
1992	no value	no value	not covered
1993	no value	no value	not covered
1994	no value	no value	not covered
1995	no value	no value	not covered
1996	no value	no value	not covered
1997	no value	no value	not covered
1998	no value	no value	not covered
1999	no value	no value	not covered
2000	no value	no value	not covered
2001	no value	no value	not covered
2002	no value	no value	not covered
2003	no value	no value	not covered
2004	no value	no value	not covered
2005	no value	no value	not covered
2006	no value	no value	not covered
2007	no value	no value	not covered
2008	no value	no value	not covered
2009	no value	no value	not covered
2010	no value	no value	not covered
2011	no value	no value	not covered
2012	no value	no value	not covered
2013	no value	no value	not covered
2014	no value	no value	not covered
2015	no value	no value	not covered
2016	no value	no value	not covered
2017	no value	no value	not covered

About this dataset and its counting rules

Statistics count the spelling “PHILOMELA” as recorded by the publisher. When a spelling has several independent origins, the counts are not split between them. Counts measure births. Gaps are years without a published value, not zeros.

Rates per million are unavailable for this series because no compatible denominator has been imported.

Universe: Dataset record, verbatim: « List of male and female baby names in South Australia from 1944 to 2024. The annual data for baby names is published January/February each year. » Files used: the 1944-2013 archive (female_/male_cyYYYY_top.csv) and the 2014-2017 per-year CSVs (2016: the 'amended' files).
Rounding: No rounding stated; amounts are integers (valueStatus=observed).
Suppression: No threshold is stated by the publisher. The lists include names with an Amount of 1 (see notes), i.e. no minimum-count suppression is visible; whether the lists are complete is not stated (the linked metadata document returned an error). Absence of a name is 'not listed', never zero.
Ranking: Position as published, preserved verbatim; never recomputed. A leading '=' marks a tie (stored as the number after '='); see notes for the observed pattern.

Retrieved 2026-10-15 · CC-BY-4.0

Read our methodology

04 / Through time

History

No historical attestations or sourced notable bearers are recorded yet. Historical databases are being evaluated for reuse permission; nothing is listed until a record can be cited.

A little story to keep

A name worth keeping.

Take the story of Philomela with you. Create a personal name passport with its meaning, roots and connections.

06 / Behind the facts

Sources for this page

Review status: Source-reported — no editorial review recorded yet. Last data change 2026-10-15.

Name origins & languageDictionaries, name records and related forms3

South Australia — Popular Baby Names, per-year lists including names given once, 1944-2017CC-BY-4.0 · rev. sa-au-1944-2017 · retrieved 2026-10-15
Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15
Turkish Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-14

Statistics and surveysPublishers, dataset licences and retrieval dates1

South Australia — Popular Baby Names, per-year lists including names given once, 1944-2017
Attorney-General's Department, South Australia (via data.sa.gov.au) · CC-BY-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15

Wiktionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata: CC0. Commons recordings retain their individual file licences. Complete attribution is available in each group above and alongside each chart.

Opening name…

About Philomela

Ancient Greek origin

Source-reported

Meaning: “love” + “apple; fruit; sheep”

Follow the language links in this account

Read from more recent borrowed forms toward older source forms. This is a derivation account, not a dated timeline.

Latin
Ancient Greek

Only explicit language links are shown. The full passage may also discuss word roots, comparisons or uncertain proposals.

Read the cited Wiktionary entry

Sources for this account (2)

Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15
Turkish Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-14

Where Philomela is used

Explore published naming statistics and documented language connections around the world.

The name atlas

Across borders

countries in our sources

Select a country to follow Philomela’s connections around the world.

1 country with published statistics. Language records show cultural connections; they do not measure how common a name is.

Selected country

United States

Language records

Documented as a given name in English.

Explore United States

4 of 10 countries

Popularity over time

Follow the spelling through the years, one published dataset at a time.

South Australia

1944–2017 Spelling: PHILOMELA

Region and dataset

Recorded category girls

Latest · 1959: 1; births; Rank #625
Peak year: 1959; 1 births

Hover to explore a year. Use arrow keys when a chart point has focus.

Source: Attorney-General's Department, South Australia · South Australia — Popular Baby Names, per-year lists including names given once, 1944-2017

No rounding stated; amounts are integers (valueStatus=observed).

Per million is unavailable: this source has no matching published total.

Show the data table

PHILOMELA in South Australia, girls: births and rank by year
Year	Births	Rank	Status
1944	no value	no value	not covered
1945	no value	no value	not covered
1946	no value	no value	not covered
1947	no value	no value	not covered
1948	no value	no value	not covered
1949	no value	no value	not covered
1950	no value	no value	not covered
1951	no value	no value	not covered
1952	no value	no value	not covered
1953	no value	no value	not covered
1954	no value	no value	not covered
1955	no value	no value	not covered
1956	no value	no value	not covered
1957	no value	no value	not covered
1958	no value	no value	not covered
1959	1	625	observed
1960	no value	no value	not covered
1961	no value	no value	not covered
1962	no value	no value	not covered
1963	no value	no value	not covered
1964	no value	no value	not covered
1965	no value	no value	not covered
1966	no value	no value	not covered
1967	no value	no value	not covered
1968	no value	no value	not covered
1969	no value	no value	not covered
1970	no value	no value	not covered
1971	no value	no value	not covered
1972	no value	no value	not covered
1973	no value	no value	not covered
1974	no value	no value	not covered
1975	no value	no value	not covered
1976	no value	no value	not covered
1977	no value	no value	not covered
1978	no value	no value	not covered
1979	no value	no value	not covered
1980	no value	no value	not covered
1981	no value	no value	not covered
1982	no value	no value	not covered
1983	no value	no value	not covered
1984	no value	no value	not covered
1985	no value	no value	not covered
1986	no value	no value	not covered
1987	no value	no value	not covered
1988	no value	no value	not covered
1989	no value	no value	not covered
1990	no value	no value	not covered
1991	no value	no value	not covered
1992	no value	no value	not covered
1993	no value	no value	not covered
1994	no value	no value	not covered
1995	no value	no value	not covered
1996	no value	no value	not covered
1997	no value	no value	not covered
1998	no value	no value	not covered
1999	no value	no value	not covered
2000	no value	no value	not covered
2001	no value	no value	not covered
2002	no value	no value	not covered
2003	no value	no value	not covered
2004	no value	no value	not covered
2005	no value	no value	not covered
2006	no value	no value	not covered
2007	no value	no value	not covered
2008	no value	no value	not covered
2009	no value	no value	not covered
2010	no value	no value	not covered
2011	no value	no value	not covered
2012	no value	no value	not covered
2013	no value	no value	not covered
2014	no value	no value	not covered
2015	no value	no value	not covered
2016	no value	no value	not covered
2017	no value	no value	not covered

About this dataset and its counting rules

Rates per million are unavailable for this series because no compatible denominator has been imported.

Universe: Dataset record, verbatim: « List of male and female baby names in South Australia from 1944 to 2024. The annual data for baby names is published January/February each year. » Files used: the 1944-2013 archive (female_/male_cyYYYY_top.csv) and the 2014-2017 per-year CSVs (2016: the 'amended' files).
Rounding: No rounding stated; amounts are integers (valueStatus=observed).
Suppression: No threshold is stated by the publisher. The lists include names with an Amount of 1 (see notes), i.e. no minimum-count suppression is visible; whether the lists are complete is not stated (the linked metadata document returned an error). Absence of a name is 'not listed', never zero.
Ranking: Position as published, preserved verbatim; never recomputed. A leading '=' marks a tie (stored as the number after '='); see notes for the observed pattern.

Retrieved 2026-10-15 · CC-BY-4.0

Read our methodology

Sources for this page

Review status: Source-reported — no editorial review recorded yet. Last data change 2026-10-15.

Name origins & languageDictionaries, name records and related forms3

South Australia — Popular Baby Names, per-year lists including names given once, 1944-2017CC-BY-4.0 · rev. sa-au-1944-2017 · retrieved 2026-10-15
Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15
Turkish Wiktionary: PhilomelaCC-BY-SA-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-14

Statistics and surveysPublishers, dataset licences and retrieval dates1

South Australia — Popular Baby Names, per-year lists including names given once, 1944-2017
Attorney-General's Department, South Australia (via data.sa.gov.au) · CC-BY-4.0 · retrieved 2026-10-15

Wiktionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata: CC0. Commons recordings retain their individual file licences. Complete attribution is available in each group above and alongside each chart.

A story to pass on.

About Philomela

Ancient Greek origin

Where Philomela is used

Across borders

United States

Popularity over time

South Australia

History

Related names

A name worth keeping.

Sources for this page

A story to pass on.

About Philomela

Ancient Greek origin

Where Philomela is used

Across borders

United States

Popularity over time

South Australia

History

Related names

A name worth keeping.

Sources for this page