Charity
Feminine · “love”
Charity is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 35,518 girls against 39 boys since 1880.
Charity is the third of the three theological virtues, and its Latin root is not sentimental: caritas meant costliness and high regard before it meant almsgiving.
How old is the name Charity?
Charity was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Charity alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 31,500 people named Charity are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Charity most popular?
Charity peaked in 1975, reaching #183 nationally. Today it ranks #1981, 1,798 places below that high. See the whole 1975 chart.
Charity appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From carus to Charity
The story of Charity
Faith, Hope and Charity are the three theological virtues of the New Testament, and English Puritans gave all three as names — sometimes to triplets. Charity was in ordinary English use from the sixteenth century and crossed to America with it. It faded in the nineteenth century and returned in the 1970s, peaking in the mid-1970s alongside a broader revival of virtue names.
Meaning
love, high regard
From the Latin caritas, 'dearness' or 'high esteem', from carus, 'dear'. Latin translators used it for the Greek agape, the specifically self-giving love of the New Testament, which is why older English Bibles render that word as charity rather than love. The modern sense of almsgiving came later.
How the name formed
- carus
- caritas
- charity
- Charity
Related forms: Caridad · Carità · Charité
Pronouncing Charity
CHA-rit-ee
Three syllables, stress on the first. It is an ordinary English word and is never mispronounced.
Nicknames for Charity
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19751,420 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #183reached in 1975
- Change vs 2022
- −17.8%97 in 2025, from 118
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Charity in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caridad in Spanish — related form
- Carità in Italian — related form
- Charité in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Georgia.
Charitys among us
people named Charity are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,570 born in 2025 was named Charity
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Charity's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lee climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lee's path sketches the road Charity is walking now.
Charity sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Charity is headed
Charity is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Charity beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Charity in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It belongs to a documented and coherent family of English virtue names.
- The Latin sense — high regard, costliness — is richer than the modern English word suggests.
- Three syllables with a front stress, which holds up against a short surname.
- The modern English word means almsgiving, which is narrower than the name's sense.
- It is an ordinary noun and never reads as purely a name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Charity to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Charity
Feminine · #1981 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Charitys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 31,500 people named Charity are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Charity in 2025?
- Charity ranks #1981 among US girl names in 2025, with 97 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Charity?
- About 1 in every 16,570 US girls born in 2025 was named Charity — 97 in all.
- Will my child share the name Charity with classmates?
- Charity will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Charity
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Reva#1981 · Shanaya#1981 · Elana#1981 · Melinda#1981 · Elisheva#1981 · Janyla#1981 · Sequoia#1981 · Theia#1981
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Charity? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Charity and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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