Pippa

Pippa developed as an affectionate form of Philippa, the feminine form of Philip. The older Greek name combines love or friendship with the word for horse, giving Pippa its familiar horse-lover interpretation through that longer family. It can also be used as a complete first name rather than only at home.

Robert Browning’s dramatic poem Pippa Passes gives the name a nineteenth-century literary association. Its repeated p creates a lively, compact shape while the Philippa connection supplies a more formal background. For a family honoring a Philip or Philippa, Pippa can preserve the relationship in a lighter form, with the horse meaning remaining a clear part of the older name’s story.