Most people know Philadelphia by its tagline: “The City of Brotherly Love.” It is one of the most famous municipal nicknames in the world, plastered on everything from tourism ads to cream cheese packaging.
But unlike other colonial cities named after British kings (Charleston), queens (Williamsburg), or distant English towns (Boston), Philadelphia was an invention. It was a carefully chosen brand name created by William Penn to signal that this city was going to be different from anywhere else on Earth.
Here is the story of how a Quaker pacifist used two Greek words to define a new American ideal.
The King Named the State, Penn Named the City
It is a common misconception that William Penn named the state “Pennsylvania” after himself. He actually wanted to call it “New Wales” or “Sylvania” (Latin for forest land).
It was King Charles II who insisted on “Pennsylvania” to honor William’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, a war hero who had served the crown. The younger Penn was actually embarrassed by the name, fearing it looked like vanity.
However, when it came to the capital city of this new colony, the King left the naming rights to William. Penn needed a name that would serve as a mission statement for his “Holy Experiment.”
The Greek Equation
Penn, a highly educated Oxford man, turned to Ancient Greek to construct his name. He combined two roots:
- Phileo (φιλέω): Meaning “to love” or “affection.”
- Adelphos (ἀδελφός): Meaning “brother.”
Put them together, and you get Philadelphia: “Brotherly Love.”
For Penn, a Quaker who had been imprisoned for his beliefs in England, this wasn’t just a poetic sentiment. It was a radical political stance. In a world torn apart by religious wars and persecution, he intended his city to be a place of refuge where people of all faiths—Quakers, Catholics, Jews, and Anglicans—could live together as “brothers” without fear of violence.
The Biblical Inspiration
While the Greek translation is famous, many historians believe Penn had a secondary, deeper meaning in mind. He was likely referencing the Bible, specifically the Book of Revelation.
In Revelation, St. John writes letters to the “Seven Churches of Asia.” One of those cities was an ancient Greek city in modern-day Turkey named Philadelphia.
Of the seven churches addressed in Revelation, the church in Philadelphia is one of only two that receives no criticism from God. It is praised for its faithfulness and endurance: “I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut.”
By choosing this name, Penn was effectively calling his new settlement the “City of the Open Door”—a place of refuge for the persecuted and a city destined for divine favor.
A Legacy Carved in Stone
The name set the tone for the city’s layout and culture. Unlike the tangled, cow-path streets of Boston or London, Penn designed Philadelphia as a “Greene Country Towne” with a logical grid system and public squares, intended to prevent the fires and disease that plagued crowded European cities.
The name became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Philadelphia became the capital of the American Enlightenment, a center for abolitionism, and the birthplace of the nation’s founding documents.
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