Theophilos
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Greek 'friend of God'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Theophilos is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Nigeria than in any other country. In Ghana it is the 80th most common given name.
- GHGhana≈1 in 2.8Kas Theophilus(inferred from the name graph)
- NGNigeria≈1 in 4.2Kas Theophilus
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 18Kas Theophilus
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Theophilos itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Nigeria (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 224 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.8K (inferred from the name graph)
≈51,000 named Theophilus, est.
Highest-authority source
Ghana, est., as Theophilus
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Theophilus in US United States, NG Nigeria, GH Ghana and 3 more.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Greek 'friend of God'
Sources 1
- Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Theophilos counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NG Nigeria | #811 | ≈51,000 est. | ≈1 in 4.2K | listed | Theophilus | 88 |
| GH Ghana | #80 | ≈10,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.8K | — | Theophilus | 71 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈3,200 est. | ≈1 in 18K | — | Theophilus | 33 |
| KE Kenya | — | ≈2,600 est. | ≈1 in 20K | — | Theophilus | 12 |
| US United States | — | 1,790as Theophilus | 1 in 186K | 1.8K | Theophilus | 224 |
| GY Guyana | #246 | 44as Theophilus | 1 in 17K | 44 | Theophilus | 2 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Theophilos is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In German, gr. "Gottes- freund". Theophil, |us, ius; Theolphiel, fiel (Theres): ON. UFrk.: Threß, Thris, Dareser. Die hi. Theresa (f 1582) erst 1622 heilig gespro- chen; dazu viell. Dres- (s)ia Therig,
as a nameDeutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Theophilus ben Ananusb. 501st century CE High Priest of Israel
- Theophilus of Antiochb. 200TRPatriarch of Antioch from c.169 to c.183
- Theophilus of Edessab. 695TRGreek astrologer
- Theophilos Kourkouasb. 90110th-century Byzantine general
- Theofilos Vandorosb. 1960GRnot in their usual nameGreek actor (1960 - 2021)
- Pope Theophilus of AlexandriaEGPatriarch of Alexandria from 384 to 412
- Theophilos Erotikos11th-century Byzantine general, governor, and rebel
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 3 sources across 2 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2018 | 7 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 5 | — |
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Theophilos mean, and where does it come from?
- Greek 'friend of God' Recorded by Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung.
- Is Theophilos a male or female name?
- Theophilos is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- What are other forms of the name Theophilos?
- In the etymology graph, Teofilo, Theophilus and Théophile are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Theophilos have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 51 thousand people named Theophilus in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold.
- How common is the name Theophilos?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,790 people named Theophilus in 2020, about 1 in 186 thousand residents.
- How common is Theophilos compared with other names?
- In Nigeria, Theophilos is the 811th most common given name of 138,191 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Theophilos?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/theophilosThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Theophilos” — the 811th most common given name in Nigeria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.