Modestine

Girls' name

Diminutive of Modestus

Modestine has been given to 230 babies in the U.S. since 1918. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1954, with 12 recorded.

Babies named Modestine, 1962

1 in 807,000

Modestine over time, 1880–2025

Girls

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Modestine: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Modestus

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Modestine means

Modestine is a diminutive of Modestus.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Modestine is used in French.

Another recorded pronunciation is /mɔ.dɛs.tin/ for Modestine.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Modestus.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 230 girls were recorded with the name Modestine between 1918 and 1962. Its highest annual count was 12 in 1954; its best national rank was #2,918 in 1931.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

U.S. Social Security Administration: national name data and limitations

How common is Modestine?

Modestine had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1962, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1962: 1 in 807,000; 5 of 4,035,213 births
Among girls only: 1 in 393,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 1962: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 559,400 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Modestine sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1962 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%

Class of 30Under 1%

Grade of 100Under 1%

School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 559,400 children born in 1962 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Modestine. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Modestines were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Modestine was born before 1938 — so the typical Modestine is around 87 today.

Median birth year: 1938; About 87 years old
Biggest decade: 1920s; 26.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 53.0%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 49; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

1920s — 26.1% of all recorded uses (60).

Is Modestine rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago: —; Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago: New entry; Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago: —; Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago: —; Not published both years
Share of its own peak: 0%; Peak was 1954 (12)
Years since peak: 71; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 39.1% average annual change
Best rank ever: #2,918; 1931

Spellings of Modestine

Modestine is not the most common spelling — Destine is, with 84.2% against Modestine's 15.8%.

Destine84.2%1,222
Modestine15.8%230

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Modestine is used

Across 1910–2025, Modestine was most concentrated in South Carolina — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 46,196 across all states with data.

22 per 100,000

State popularity map

Most concentrated

1South Carolina1 in 50,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Modestine has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Modestine around the world

Where Modestine ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

France
1900–1956
#1,612
in 1956

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Modestine by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #2,918; 1931
Peak year: 1954; 12 that year
First recorded: 1918
Last recorded: 1962
All-time count: 230
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Modestine

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

Sibling names for Modestine

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

For a sister

Jacalyn Luanne Romona Louann Gayla Nanci Joycelyn Rosanne

For a brother

Stanton Stanford Lindsey Jerrold Leigh Garth Sandy Dirk

Explore around Modestine

Top names of 1954, Modestine's peak year The 1950s in full Other names that peaked in 1931 Girls' names starting with M