Patience is one of the Puritan virtue names, taken from the Latin patientia, which means "endurance" or "patient suffering". New England families of the 17th and 18th centuries used it alongside Prudence, Charity and Temperance, and it never fully disappeared from American records. Patience stood at number 894 in 2000, peaked at number 578 in 2006, left the top 1000 after 2014 and ranks number 1297 in 2025.