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Charity

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Girl · Latin, through French

Charity

Say it: CHAIR-ih-tee

Try it with your surname

Meaning

The English word charity, from Latin caritas 'dearness, love', the Christian virtue of love.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Kind

A Puritan virtue name, used again in 20th-century America.

Its wave through time

A fashion of the 1970s

In the United States

05010018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1975per 100,000 babies of that sex
  • 34,973 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1975, about 1 in 1,000 girls
  • 138 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Colonial Americas1500 to 1800
  2. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  3. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

EnglishAmerican

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Puritan church and town records of England and New England
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.