Philomena is from the Greek philos (loving) + menos (strength) — "lover of strength." A modern American baby name in the broader Greek-Catholic heritage aesthetic. Saint Philomena (1st century) — iconic foundational early Christian virgin martyr; remains discovered in the iconic foundational Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome (1802); widely venerated in iconic foundational Catholic devotional tradition; her foundational shrine at the iconic Sanctuary of Mugnano del Cardinale (Italy) has been one of the most-visited Catholic pilgrimage sites since the 19th century; central to the foundational tradition of the iconic Curé d'Ars (Saint John Vianney, 1786-1859 — patron saint of parish priests) who attributed multiple miraculous healings to her intercession. **Philomena (2013 film) — iconic British-American biographical drama; directed by Stephen Frears; starring iconic British Dame Judi Dench (born 1934) in the foundational title role + iconic Steve Coogan; based on the iconic foundational 2009 non-fiction book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith; the iconic foundational story follows real-life Irish woman Philomena Lee (1933-2025) searching for her son who was taken from her by Irish nuns and adopted to the US in 1955 — one of the foundational works on the iconic Irish Magdalene Laundries scandals; the iconic Philomena film earned 4 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Actress (Dench); BAFTA Best Adapted Screenplay (2014); widely studied as one of the foundational works of modern Irish-British social-issue cinema. Princess Philomena** — Greek-Catholic heritage naming.
Featured throughout Catholic heritage and British cinema.
Philomena does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.
In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Philomena reduce to 3, The Communicator. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.