Tempie vs Temple
American parents have registered 2,396 Temples since 1880, against 1,681 Tempies. Temple is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Tempie 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 145 years in which either name was published, Temple for 84 years and Tempie for 61 years. The lead changed hands 21 times.
- 1880–1932 Tempie ahead, apart from 3 short spells
- 1941–1947 Temple ahead
- 1948–1951 Tempie ahead
- 1952–2025 Temple ahead, apart from 3 short spells
12 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Tempie | Temple | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,681 | 2,396 |
| Most in one year | 39 | 104 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 9 |
| Estimated living today | 430 | 1,600 |
| Median age today | 70 | 51 |
| Peak year | 1918 | 1971 |
| Best rank | 1,203rd girls | 1,253rd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 10,107th |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1884 |
| Girls / boys | 1,681 / 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 Tempies alive today are over 70; half the Temples are over 51. That is 19 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Tempie North Carolina (17.1×), Alabama (11.3×), Mississippi (7.0×)
- Temple Texas (6.8×)
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: Tempie and Temple.