Philomena

Philomena comes from Greek Philoumene, a form associated with being loved. It became particularly familiar through devotion to Saint Philomena after the discovery of a Roman tomb in the nineteenth century. The interpretation of that tomb and the details of the saint’s life are uncertain, so the later tradition is best distinguished from securely documented biography.

Filomena is the spelling used in several other languages, including Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Sylvia Plath used Philomena for a character in The Bell Jar, while the film Philomena brought the story of Philomena Lee to a wider audience. The name therefore carries a love-related Greek meaning alongside religious, literary, and modern biographical connections.