Temple
Temple reached its high-water mark in 1971 at number 1,253, and has been recorded 2,396 times in all. It is given to both boys and girls. In 2025 it ranked 10,107th. About 1,600 Temples are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 51.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Temple boys named Temple
Girls and boys called Temple
years more girls than boys years more boys than girls
Temple crossed from boys to girls in 1961, and has stayed there for 17 of the years counted since. At its furthest it was 100% girls, and in 2019 it was 75%.
The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 25 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 2,396
- Estimated living today
- 1,600
- Median age today
- 51
- Peak year
- 1971
- Best rank
- 1,253rd
- Rank in 2025
- 10,107th
- First recorded
- 1884
- Girls / boys
- 1,568 / 828
How old the living Temples are
born that year still alive today
Of the 2,396 babies given the name since 1884, about 1,600 are alive — 67 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1974 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Latin
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Temples
- Temple Grandin (born 1947)American doctor of animal science, author, and autism activist
- Eric Temple Bell (1883–1960)Scottish American mathematician and science fiction author
- Temple Chevallier (1794–1873)British astronomer
- William Temple Hornaday (1854–1937)American conservationist and zoologist
People named Temple with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Temple is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Temple is most concentrated in Texas (6.8×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1971
The most popular girls’ names the year Temple peaked:
Related names
Temple against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.