This paper presents a comprehensive physical characterization and modeling of the three-phase common-mode (CM) inductors along with the equivalent circuits that are relevant for their design. Modeling issues that are treated sparsely in previous literature are explained in this paper, and novel insightful aspects are presented. The calculation of the leakage inductance is reviewed, along with the magnetic core saturation issues, and a new expression for the leakage flux path is derived. The influence of the core material characteristics on the performance of the component is discussed, and a new method for the selection of the material for the minimized volume CM inductors is proposed in order to simplify the design procedure. Experimental results which validate the model are presented.