Discussions about the origin of the Filep name.

The appearance of the Filep name in the bible credits this name with more than 2000 years of existence.

The most plausible explanation of the Filep name is that which evokes its Greek origin. According to this theory, this name consists of the first syllables of two Greek words, philos (friend) and hippos (horse). The phonetic transcription into Latin letters gives the name Filip. Through time and frequent adaptation to the language and area where the family moved, this name has undergone modifications. The changes are numerous, going from the simplest transformation of subsituting the letter F with Ph, through more comical changes such as Filipovic and Filepovski, to extreme cases where the name undergoes a complete metamorphosis which has nothing to do with the original name. These phenomena, which show the concern for integration of a new family into the local population, sometimes provoke explanations which at first seem fantastical.

Hence, some Fileps, expatriated to countries where no accents appear on vowels, are convinced that the origin of their name is Fülöp (common in the old Hungarian empire) which for easier spelling has been modified. This reasoning seems suspicious to me. The fact that more than 800 people in Hungary still have the Filep name, and that entire pages in phone books in English speaking countries are filled with Fulop, do not bother the defenders of this theory.

Isolated cases may perhaps prove this hypothesis, but I think these certainly do not constitute the general case. In my personal opinion, based on the particular pronunciation of vowels, notably of the letter « e » in certain regions of Hungary (Debrecen), I would be inclined to belive the opposite, that the name Fülöp is the one that is a transformation of Filip. To each his own truth.

Filip, Filep, Filepp, Fülep, Fülöp Filp, Filippe etc., all seemingly have the same origin. Genealogists are very familiar with these variations of the name. What makes it perplexing is the possibility of finding these variations within the same family living in the same region. Sometimes under the advice of an employer active in the administration of the company in the host country or from the concern of integration itself, radical changes have happened. It is like this that Varga has become Schuster, or conversely, Müller became Molnàr. The Filep name has not undergone such an adaptation, but it is very likely that it was abandoned when people moved. 

Even if today your name is Taylor or Dupont, if by chance you come across a family document with the Filep name on it, do not hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to add another leaf onto one of the empty branches of our family tree.