girl's name
Faith
FAYTH
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 1
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 172,817
the United States
#254
2025 births
Faith is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "trust" or "belief," one of the virtue names the Puritans put into use in the sixteenth century. It ranks 99th in Northern Ireland and 254th in the United States.
- Faith is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 2003, when 5,612 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 2,717 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Faith over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 86 |
| 1890s | 234 |
| 1900s | 294 |
| 1910s | 1,040 |
| 1920s | 2,104 |
| 1930s | 3,190 |
| 1940s | 4,528 |
| 1950s | 6,963 |
| 1960s | 7,005 |
| 1970s | 6,364 |
| 1980s | 6,685 |
| 1990s | 19,563 |
| 2000s | 48,895 |
| 2010s | 32,055 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 9,136 |
What Faith means
Faith means trust, belief or fidelity. The Latin fides covers all three, and it is closer to keeping faith with someone — reliability between people — than to religious conviction alone, which is a narrowing the English word acquired later.
Where Faith comes from
Faith comes through the Old French feid from the Latin fides, trust or fidelity, related to fidere, to trust. It belongs to the group of abstract virtue names — Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Temperance, Grace — that English Puritans adopted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in place of saints' names, and that crossed to New England with them. Faith, Hope and Charity are the three theological virtues of First Corinthians, which is why they arrived as a set; Charity translates the Greek agape and has since faded, while Grace and Faith survived. An earlier and separate Saint Faith, Sainte Foy, was a third-century martyr at Agen whose relics at Conques made her a major pilgrimage figure, so the name existed in France before the Puritans took it up in English.
Faith in use
Faith ranks 99th in Northern Ireland with 21 births in 2024 and 254th in the United States with 1,220 births — its largest market by a wide margin. It is falling in our data from a peak in 2003, and our records carry it from 1880. In Ireland it is much weaker at 428th, which is a consistent pattern for Puritan virtue names on the island.
How popular is Faith?
In 2025, Faith was given to 1,220 babies in the United States, ranking #254 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Faith is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Faith
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Faith also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Faith over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Faith in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Dutch
- Faye
Sibling names for Faith
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Faith — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Faith
What does the name Faith mean?
Faith means "trust" or "belief," from the Latin fides.
Is Faith a Puritan name?
Its English use is. Puritans adopted virtue names in place of saints' names in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Is Faith related to Faye?
No. Faye means fairy, from the Old French fae. Faye is sometimes used as a short form of Faith by association only.
How popular is Faith?
Ninety-ninth in Northern Ireland and 254th in the United States.
Is Faith a girl's or a boy's name?
Faith is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Faith?
Faith has 1 syllable.
Is Faith a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Faith currently ranks #99 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.