Temperance vs Temple
American parents have registered 3,709 Temperances since 1880, against 2,396 Temples. Temperance is still ahead, with 94 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Temperance Temple
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 124 years in which either name was published, Temple for 99 years and Temperance for 25 years. The lead changed hands 5 times.
- 1884–1985 Temple ahead
- 1986 Temperance ahead
- 1987–1989 Temple ahead
- 1990–1993 Temperance ahead
- 1994–2005 Temple ahead
- 2006–2025 Temperance ahead
Side by side
| Temperance | Temple | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 3,709 | 2,396 |
| Most in one year | 324 | 104 |
| Babies in 2025 | 94 | 9 |
| Estimated living today | 3,700 | 1,600 |
| Median age today | 11 | 51 |
| Peak year | 2014 | 1971 |
| Best rank | 850th girls | 1,253rd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 2,017th | 10,107th |
| First recorded | 1916 | 1884 |
| Girls / boys | 3,709 / 0 | 1,568 / 828 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Temples alive today are over 51; half the Temperances are over 11. That is 40 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Temperance and Temple.