"Philadelphia" as a christian name

[king william]

I have Catt ancestors in Sussex and I have long been fascinated by the name of Philadelphia Catt, she is not of my direct line but is a great auntie (several times removed)
I have helped a friend begin his family history and he has the name of Penn in his first few generations and there is an Eric Penn who is commemorated in the war dead of Westfield which is where most of my Catts came from. It appears that the Penn name is prevalent in Sussex.
I am curious if the name Philadelphia is anything at all to do with the Penn family - William Penn set off to America and founded Pennsylvania and I am sure he also founded Philadelphia - I may be wrong there! I believe he married a girl from Ringmer which brings Sussex into the equation.
Did William Penn name the city and his relatives back home called their daughters after his new city - or did he name the city after a girl from Sussex - which came first - the chicken or the egg - or am I just wild guessing and way off the mark.
It does seems a strange name to have just come out of the air - I never once looked at my newborn daughter and thought "I will call her Philadelphia!"
Interested in any answers you locals may come up with.
Robin
New Zealand

[Little Nell]

Philadelphia was quite common as a girl's name in Sussex.  I seem to remember that someone else asked about the use of the name a while ago.  I'll see if I can find it.

Apart from that, it means "brotherly love" and there are quite a few places with the name, including a village in Sunderland and another in Germany, as well as three more places in USA.

Nell

[Little Nell]

Found a link to a discussion about the use of the name:

http://www.rootschat.com/links/01wk/

Sussex seems to be the most common place for it.

Nell

[king william]

Thanks Little Nell, the link certainly explained it all, I am puzzled no longer!
Robin

[kerryb]

As I'm at work I'm just going to add to this thread so that I can read the link at home tonight.  I have lots of family in East Sussex and it does seem all of a sudden I have a rash of Philadelphias. 

The name just seems to appear in lots of lines at the same time.

Kerry

[Kiwi1949]

Hello Robin. I'm also in NZ and both my grandmother and gt-gt-grandmothers were named Philadelphia and both were from Sussex.
Maybe we are related ?
Sue

[Pare Hayward-Howie]

I am from New Zealand also, 

I just found a Philadelphia Mary Abbot baptised at Thanington on 10 Aug 1816.  I like the name Delphi, but all I'm thinking is cream cheese. 

[lizdb]

Yes - agree with what's been said. I too had a rush of Philadelphias amongst my Sussex ancestors.

[jim234j]

Many of my wifes ancestors were from East Sussex and five of them had that name.    Antoinette was another name I found to be fairly common in her East Sussex line.