If you were to name a church, how would you go about it? Let’s see how people have named churches in the U.S. by looking at a random sample of 300,000 church names gathered using the Yahoo! Local Search API.
The Word "Church"
You might start with the word “church” in your name. About 2/3 of churches in the dataset have the word “church.” (The number of churches with the word “church” in reality is higher, as the dataset often truncates names.) Other popular nouns: center, fellowship, chapel, assembly, ministries (or ministry), temple, tabernacle, and iglesia.
Most Common Words in Church Names
Here’s a wordle of the most common words that appear in church names (excluding the word “church”):
Most Common Words in Church Names, Excluding Denominations
Denominations overpower the raw list. Here’s a wordle of the same data without denomination names:
Full Church Names
Here are the most common church names in the U.S. Also download the top 1,000 church names in the U.S. (29 KB Excel document), covering 95,000 churches, if you want more information.
| Church Name | Churches |
|---|---|
| first baptist church | 5,115 |
| church of christ | 2,854 |
| first united methodist church | 2,149 |
| first presbyterian church | 1,960 |
| united methodist church | 1,488 |
| seventh-day adventist church | 1,478 |
| first christian church | 1,309 |
| calvary baptist church | 1,197 |
| church of the nazarene | 915 |
| trinity lutheran church | 892 |
| salvation army | 867 |
| first assembly of god | 744 |
| church of god | 677 |
| faith baptist church | 663 |
| st john's lutheran church | 601 |
| grace baptist church | 600 |
| first congregational church | 575 |
| assembly of god church | 565 |
| new hope baptist church | 540 |
| zion lutheran church | 523 |
Saints
The word “St.” (Saint) is common in more traditional churches, such as Catholic, Episcopalian, and Lutheran. Here are the most popular saint names used for churches:
| Saint | Churches |
|---|---|
| John | 3,713 |
| Paul | 3,210 |
| Mary | 1,832 |
| Peter | 1,362 |
| James | 1,270 |
| Joseph | 1,153 |
| Mark | 1,062 |
| Luke | 1,053 |
| Andrew | 789 |
| Matthew | 724 |
| Stephen | 582 |
| Michael | 532 |
| Francis | 530 |
| Thomas | 511 |
| Patrick | 431 |
| Anthony | 381 |
| George | 329 |
| Ann(e) | 282 |
| Nicholas | 253 |
| Elizabeth | 220 |
Mountains
Mountains and hills are common names for churches. I suspect that “Spring Hill” and the assorted “Pleasant"s come from the city names where the churches stand.
| Mountain | Churches |
|---|---|
| mt zion | 1,587 |
| mt olive(t) | 1,122 |
| mt calvary | 619 |
| mt carmel | 528 |
| mt pleasant | 475 |
| pleasant hill | 394 |
| mt moriah | 329 |
| mt sinai | 316 |
| zion hill | 200 |
| mt pisgah | 191 |
| mt nebo | 139 |
| mt tabor | 136 |
| mt pilgrim | 112 |
| mt hope | 108 |
| mt gilead | 95 |
| mt bethel | 90 |
| spring hill | 90 |
| mt hermon | 85 |
| mt lebanon | 74 |
| mars hill | 59 |
Denominations
Here are the most-common two-word phrases (including denomination names) used in some of the more popular denominations. “First” appears in 12% of Baptist church names, 10% of Methodist church names, only 3% of Lutheran church names, and fully 21% of Presbyterian church names.
| Baptist | Methodist | Lutheran | Presbyterian |
|---|---|---|---|
| first baptist | united methodist | trinity lutheran | first presbyterian |
| missionary baptist | first united | st john's | united presbyterian |
| freewill baptist | chapel united | st paul's | cumberland presbyterian |
| grove baptist | free methodist | evangelical lutheran | korean presbyterian |
| calvary baptist | trinity united | zion lutheran | westminster presbyterian |
| hill baptist | memorial united | grace lutheran | covenant presbyterian |
| zion baptist | st paul | our savior's | community presbyterian |
| hope baptist | grace united | faith lutheran | memorial presbyterian |
| creek baptist | grove united | immanuel lutheran | trinity presbyterian |
| faith baptist | wesley united | christ lutheran | orthodox presbyterian |
| mt zion | zion united | peace lutheran | reformed presbyterian |
| bethel baptist | hill united | redeemer lutheran | grace presbyterian |
| new hope | christ united | first lutheran | hill presbyterian |
| grace baptist | bethel united | good shepherd | faith presbyterian |
| bible baptist | faith united | hope lutheran | hope presbyterian |
| chapel baptist | hope united | calvary lutheran | christ presbyterian |
| community baptist | street united | bethlehem lutheran | central presbyterian |
| mt olive | asbury united | st peter's | valley presbyterian |
| memorial baptist | park united | bethany lutheran | creek presbyterian |
| southern baptist | salem united | messiah lutheran | park presbyterian |