Temperance
Temperance was given to 94 girls in 2025, #2,034 among girls’ names; 3,709 Americans have been recorded with it since 1916 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,670 Americans named Temperance and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 8 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Temperance by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Temperance mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Temperance is “a female given name from English.”
From temperance. A virtue name first used by Puritans in the 16th century.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Temperance?
#2,034 among girls’ names, 2025
Temperance fell from #1,053 in 2015 to #2,034 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.14 to 0.06 per 1,000.
324 babies in 2014, the peak
Temperance peaked in 2014, when 324 girls were given it, #851 among girls’ names. The 94 births of 2025 are 29% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 94 | #2,034 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 92 | #2,098 | 0.06 |
| 2023 | 100 | #1,982 | 0.06 |
| 2022 | 125 | #1,683 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 123 | #1,695 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 147 | #1,467 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 156 | #1,435 | 0.09 |
| 2018 | 164 | #1,376 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 190 | #1,250 | 0.11 |
| 2016 | 235 | #1,096 | 0.13 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 251 | #1,053 | 0.14 |
| 2014 | 324 | #851 | 0.18 |
| 2013 | 289 | #891 | 0.16 |
| 2012 | 321 | #836 | 0.18 |
| 2011 | 274 | #944 | 0.16 |
| 2010 | 215 | #1,142 | 0.12 |
| 2009 | 165 | #1,424 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 88 | #2,251 | 0.05 |
| 2007 | 78 | #2,432 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 20 | #6,573 | 0.01 |
| 2005 | 8 | #12,904 | under 0.01 |
| 2004 | 6 | #15,921 | under 0.01 |
| 2002 | 5 | #17,869 | under 0.01 |
| 2001 | 8 | #11,954 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 6 | #14,268 | under 0.01 |
| 1997 | 13 | #7,245 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 9 | #9,514 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 10 | #8,694 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 8 | #10,464 | under 0.01 |
| 1993 | 7 | #11,686 | under 0.01 |
| 1992 | 9 | #9,430 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 13 | #6,941 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 14 | #6,437 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 9 | #8,694 | under 0.01 |
| 1988 | 9 | #8,333 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 6 | #11,178 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 6 | #10,780 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 6 | #10,566 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 10 | #6,748 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 8 | #7,982 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 5 | #12,143 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 6 | #10,295 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 8 | #8,106 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 13 | #5,393 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,585 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 7 | #8,372 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 10 | #6,006 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 6 | #8,948 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,653 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 5 | #9,664 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 9 | #5,898 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 5 | #5,077 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Temperance a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Temperance has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 52 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Temperance: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Temperance, and how old are they?
3,670 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,709 Americans ever recorded as Temperance. The median Temperance alive today is 12 years old; half are between 8 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 2,663 people named Temperance (2,650 women and girls, 13 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,036 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 68 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 131 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,280 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Temperance born?
The states with the most babies named Temperance are Ohio, Wisconsin and New York, with 78% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Wisconsin is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 6 | #1,426 | 1.3× |
| Wisconsin | 6 | #779 | 1.3× |
| New York | 6 | #2,049 | 0.4× |
| Indiana | 5 | #1,192 | 1.5× |
Where Temperance is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Temperance is most over-represented in Missouri: since 1916 it was given 1.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Temperance with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 4,052 babies since 1880, Temperance is the most given (92% of them). In 2025 it was given to 94 of their 94 babies (100%), again the most given.
| Name | Since 1880 | Births 2025 | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temperance | 3,709 | 94 | 2014 |
| Temprance | 154 | under 5 | 2011 |
| Temprence | 112 | under 5 | 2010 |
| Temperence | 77 | under 5 | 2010 |
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Temperance
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Temperance and names like it
- Compare Temperance and TempranceBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sTemperance peaked in 2014.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Temperance since 1910.
- English namesWiktionary’s origin for Temperance: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Temperance.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Temperance alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with TMost given first.