A variant of Chastity, from Latin castitas, meaning purity or moral cleanness.
Chasity is a variant spelling of Chastity, a virtue name with Latin roots in castitas, meaning purity, moral integrity, and the quality of restraint. Virtue names flooded into English-speaking cultures during the Puritan era of the seventeenth century, when parents named children Patience, Prudence, Temperance, and Chastity as declarations of faith and aspiration. Chastity was always among the rarer of these virtue names — it carried specific theological weight that made it feel like a promise as much as a name — and its use was largely confined to devout Protestant communities in Britain and early America.
The alternate spelling Chasity emerged as parents in the twentieth century sought to soften the overtly religious connotation while retaining the name's sound. The dropped letter subtly shifts the emphasis from the Latin virtue to a more neutral phonetic identity, making the name feel more personal and less doctrinal. Chastity Bono — daughter of Sonny and Cher — brought the name into popular culture in the 1970s and 80s, and her later transition and public life as Chaz Bono gave the name an unexpectedly complex cultural biography that has made it a subject of ongoing discussion about identity, naming, and authenticity.
Today Chasity is used quietly and sincerely, primarily in communities with strong Christian naming traditions in the American South and Midwest. It is a name that rewards the asking — its story, from Roman virtue ethics to Puritan theology to contemporary cultural history, is richer than its gentle sound suggests. Parents who choose it are usually drawn to its combination of beauty, rarity, and meaningful roots.