Phiri
surname · bem · Latin script
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Phiri is a surname, most frequently recorded in Zimbabwe, where it is the 9th most common surname. It appears chiefly in bem and English, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: From phiri (“mountain”), with a new tone pattern applied.
- ZWZimbabwe1 in 34◐
- MWMalawi1 in 71
- ZMZambia1 in 184
carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.
- ≈459 ●
- Sources
- 140 ●
- 1 in 136K ◐
across 9 countries
24K records
Official registry-verified
Finland
Meaning & origin●
From phiri (“mountain”), with a new tone pattern applied.
Sources 1
Where in the world●
Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZW Zimbabwe | #9 | 221,996 | 150 rec. | — | 74K | Phiri | 35 |
| ZM Zambia | #42 | 45,537 | 1.1K rec. | — | 377K | Phiri | 71 |
| ZA South Africa | #89 | 18,905 | 19K rec. | — | listed | Phiri | 84 |
| MW Malawi | #1 | 6,097 | 223 rec. | — | 7 | Phiri | 42 |
| GB United Kingdom | — | 2,084 | 849 rec. | — | — | Phiri | 80 |
| AU Australia | — | 591 | 514 rec. | — | — | Phiri | 47 |
| US United States | — | 291 | 1.7K rec. | 1 in 1.1M | 414 | Phiri | 140 |
| TZ Tanzania | — | 109 | 40 rec. | — | — | Phiri | 15 |
| CA Canada | — | 83 | 73 rec. | — | — | Phiri | 25 |
| FR France | — | 71 | 55 rec. | — | — | Phiri | 38 |
| IN India | — | 67 | 25 rec. | — | — | Phiri | 11 |
| DE Germany | — | 60 | 58 rec. | — | — | Phiri | 26 |
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.
Languages●
- bem378K54%
- English268K38%
- Swahili23K3%
- Nyanja13K2%
- English (South Africa)9.9K1%
Show as table
| Name | Records | Note |
|---|---|---|
| bem | 377,566 | 54% |
| English | 268,311 | 38% |
| Swahili | 23,299 | 3% |
| Nyanja | 13,173 | 2% |
| English (South Africa) | 9,938 | 1% |
Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.
Other recorded senses●
Phiri 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.
In Tswana, Means 'hyena'; a Sotho-Tswana clan/totem name.
as a wordsanames.co.za — South African surnames
In Nyanja, mountain, hill
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In seh, mountain
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Northern Sotho, hyena
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In tum, hill
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
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●
- Ray Phirib. 1947ZASouth African jazz musician (1947–2017)
- Virginia Phirib. 1954ZWZimbabwean author
- Benjamin Phirib. 1959ZMZambian Roman Catholic archbishop
- James Phirib. 1968ZMFootballer (1968-2001)
- Christopher Phirib. 1975ZWZimbabwean cricketer
- Topsy Phirib. 1980ZMbadminton player
- Edwin Phirib. 1983ZMZambian footballer
- Catherine Phirib. 1987ZMZambian boxer
- Gerald Phirib. 1988ZMZambian sprinter
- Vast Phirib. 1996ZMZambian footballer
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●
Attested in 29 sources across 19 countries.
Reference works 3
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Wikipedia surname 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 2026-09-12 data build · 32 rows in the corpus for this spelling.
Frequently asked questions
- How common is the name Phiri?
- We estimate roughly 459 people bear Phiri (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.
- In which country does Phiri have the most bearers?
- Phiri is most frequently recorded in Zimbabwe, where it is most often spelled phiri.
- How common is Phiri compared with other names?
- In Zimbabwe, Phiri is the 9th most common surname of 8,027 surnames recorded there.
- What does the name Phiri mean?
- Recorded meaning: From phiri (“mountain”), with a new tone pattern applied.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/phiriThe same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.
About this data
Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.
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, “Phiri” — the 9th most common surname in Zimbabwe. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.