Patience

Patience has never been a particularly popular name in America. It showed up in the 19th century and was used sparingly. By the early 20th century, Patience retreated into the shadows of non-use for nearly 100 consecutive years. Apparently, this name was sitting “patiently” on the bench waiting to be called back into the game. This happened in 1994, when Patience reemerged on the American female naming charts after a long and lonely hiatus. For the past almost 20 years, Patience has bounced around low levels of usage on the charts and it doesn’t appear as if she’ll gain much more ground anytime soon. The thing that’s tricky about naming children after vocabulary words that denote some type of value or good quality is that you run the risk of your child being measured by her ability to demonstrate or embody said word. In other words, your daughter will be the subject of much ridicule if she turns out to be impatient (for instance, we would advise against the name Patience for a baby Sagittarius who are generally known for their impatience!). Like all traditional “virtue” names, Patience is sweet-sounding and meaningful.