Charity

English word name
"charity"
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Charity Origin and Meaning

The name Charity is a girl's name of English origin meaning "charity".

Charity is one of the Big Three abstract virtue names, along with Hope and Faith, though far less widely used than the others. But as Faith, Grace and Hope grow more common, some parents are beginning to look at the more unusual three-syllable choices like Verity, Amity, Clarity and Charity, which sound much fresher and also have that pleasingly rhythmic 'y'-ending sound.

In the Dickens novel Martin Chuzzlewit, there are two sisters named Charity and Mercy, who are known as Cherry and Merry.

In the musical Sweet Charity the title character, Charity Hope Valentine, is an all too charitable girl with a heart of gold. In the novel"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" Charity Burbage is a Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and in Two Broke Girls there's an Aunt Charity who's not very charitable.

Charity was in the Top 500 in the 1880's and 1890's, remained in the Top 1000 until 1927 when it dropped from sight, then reappeared in 1968. For a period in the 1970's and eighties, Charity was a Top 300 name.

# 995 in the US

Charity Rank in US Top 1000

020040060080010001880189019001910192019701980199020002013
# 1508 on Nameberry

Charity Rank in Nameberry Top 1000

020040060080010002013201420152016201720182020

Popularity of the name Charity

20 Names Similar to Charity

These 20 names were selected by our users that were looking for other names like Charity.

Famous People Named Charity

  • Charity Wakefield
    English actress
  • Charity Shea
    American actress
  • Charity Rahmer
    American actress
  • Charity Edna Adams Earley
    first black American WACS officer
  • Charity Brown (born Phyllis Boltz)
    Canadian actress
  • Charity Kaluki Ngilu
    Kenyan politician
  • Charity Opara
    Nigerian Olympic runner
  • Charity Waciuma
    Kenyan novelist
  • Charity Ogbenyealu Adule
    Nigerian footballer
  • Charity Hallett Barnum
    wife of American showman P.T. Barnum
  • Charity Clarke
    American revolutionary
  • Charity Clarke Moore
    daughter of American poet Clement C. Moore, who composed "The Night Before Christmas" for her; granddaughter of Charity Clarke

The name Charity in Pop Culture

  • Charity Hope Valentine
    character in musical "Sweet Charity"
  • Charity Channing
    character in TV series "2 Broke Girls"
  • Charity Burbage
    teacher in the "Harry Potter" series
  • Charity Dingle
    a character played by actress Emma Atkins on the British soap "Emmerdale"
  • Charity Standish
    character on American soap "Passions"
  • Charity Bazaar
    character on animated series "Histeria!"
  • Charity More
    character in "Stargazer" by Claudia Gray
  • Charity Graff
    main character in "Cutters Don't Cry" by Christine Dzidrums