Philomene

History & Origin

Philomene is the French and German spelling of Philomena, whose Greek parts, philos and menos, give 'lover of strength.' It reached American birth records through Catholic immigrant families and appears from the early eighteen-eighties, peaking around 1915. The nineteenth-century rediscovery of Saint Philomena's tomb had made the name devotionally fashionable in France, and French-heritage households carried the -mene spelling to the United States. It was never common here, claimed by only a couple dozen girls a year at its height.

With its last records around 1960, Philomene reads as a distinctly early-century, old-country Catholic name; a bearer would now be in her later years or passed. It has not revived, but parents drawn to saintly, softly French names may prefer the fuller Philomena or cousins like Josephine and Wilhelmina.