Theophilus
given name · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Theophilus 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. Recorded meaning: The name Theophilus is Greek for 'friend of God' or 'loved by God'.
- GHGhana≈1 in 2.8K(inferred from the name graph)
- NGNigeria≈1 in 4.2K
- ZASouth Africa≈1 in 18K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). 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 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Ghana, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
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)
The name Theophilus is Greek for 'friend of God' or 'loved by God'. Some scholars suggest it may not be a proper name but an honorary title for any Christian reader to whom the works of Luke were addressed, symbolizing all who are friends of God.
Sources 1
- Biblical Names Compiled Database
Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Theophilus 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 | — | 1,790 | 1 in 186K | 1.8K | Theophilus | 224 |
| GY Guyana | #246 | 44 | 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)
Theophilus is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
A classic name of Greek origin meaning 'friend of God', Theophilus is known from the New Testament as the respected individual to whom the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were dedicated.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
The name is derived from the Koine Greek Θεόφιλος (Theophilos), which is a compound of Θεός (Theos), meaning 'God', and φίλος (philos), meaning 'friend' or 'beloved'.
as a nameBiblical Names Compiled Database
In English, The addressee of the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, crater on Moon
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
In Swedish, Se Amadeus.
as a nameFörnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon
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)
- John Theophilus Desaguliersb. 1683FRFrench-born British natural philosopher and clergyman
- Theophilus Siegfried Bayerb. 1694DEGerman sinologist
- Theophilus Hastings, 9th Earl of Huntingdonb. 1696English noble (1696-1746)
- Samuel Lindeb. 1771PLnot in their usual namePolish academic
- I. T. A. Wallace-Johnsonb. 1894SLnot in their usual nameSierra Leonean trade unionist, journalist, activist, and politician (1894–1965)
- Theophilus Ebenhaezer Döngesb. 1898ZAformer elected State President of South Africa who died before being able to take office (1898–1968)
- Oliver Jonesb. 1934CAnot in their usual nameCanadian musician
- Doctor Khumalob. 1967ZAnot in their usual nameSouth African footballer
- Theophilus Londonb. 1987USAmerican rapper and singer
- Theo Pinsonb. 1995USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player (born 1995)
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 53 sources across 30 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 258 | #79,581 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 192 | #95,115 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 144 | #112,967 |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Theophilus mean, and where does it come from?
- The name Theophilus is Greek for 'friend of God' or 'loved by God'. Recorded by Biblical Names Compiled Database.
- What are other forms of the name Theophilus?
- In the etymology graph, Theo, Teofilo and Théophile are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Is Theophilus a male or female name?
- Theophilus 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.
- In which country does Theophilus have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 51 thousand people named Theophilus in Nigeria, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled theophilus.
- How common is the name Theophilus?
- In the United States, the national register counted 1,790 people named Theophilus in 2020, about 1 in 186 thousand residents.
- How common is Theophilus compared with other names?
- In Nigeria, Theophilus is the 811th most common given name of 138,191 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Theophilus?
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/theophilusThe same 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), and bulk access is licensed separately.
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, “Theophilus” — the 811th most common given name in Nigeria. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.