What’s in a (temple) name? The origin stories of ‘St. George,’ ‘Cardston,’ and more

Temple names are often linked to their locations, whether they reflect their home cities or nearby landmarks. With the recent rededication of the temples in St. George and Manti, we wanted to take a quick look at the history behind their names. We’ll also explore the stories behind nine other interesting temple monikers.

Though the Salt Lake Temple might be the most well-known in the Church, when it comes to longevity, the St. George Utah Temple takes the cake. The oldest temple in operation in the Church and the first to be completed after the original Nauvoo Temple, the St. George Temple is chock full of history.

This temple was named for the city where it resides and was designed by Truman O. Angell (the same architect for the Salt Lake Temple).¹ It was the first temple built in the west and is the oldest operating temple in the Church.

There are several rumors as to the history of the name St. George, but most historians agree the city was likely named after Apostle George A. Smith because of his involvement in personally selecting many of the pioneers who were sent to settle the area. A common theory about the addition of the “St.” prefix is that George A. Smith was sometimes known as the “potato saint” because he shared potatoes with Saints in his company who were suffering from scurvy.²

While this explanation has some holes, St. George is not the only Latter-day Saint settlement to include the abbreviation for “Saint.” For example, St. David, Arizona, was named after the area’s presiding authority and the son of Apostle Heber C. Kimball, David Patten Kimball. In addition, St. Charles, Idaho, was named after the Apostle Charles C. Rich. Check out these theories in more detail in this 2007 Deseret News article.

Construction on the Manti Utah Temple began in 1877, and it was dedicated in 1888 as the third operating temple in Utah. It was built on the Manti Stone Quarry and made of a stone with the same namesake: Manti oolite.

Like the St. George Temple, the Manti Temple’s namesake is its home city. Latter-day Saint pioneers settled in Manti in 1849 at the invitation of a local Ute chief. The local patriarch, Isaac Morley, suggested to President Brigham Young that the Saints could call it after the city “Manti” from the Book of Alma. After the area was surveyed, it officially became the city of Manti in February 1851.³

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The Logan Utah Temple was built from 1877 to 1884 and reflects its city name. The area was settled by Latter-day Saints in 1859. The local river had already been named Logan by the trappers of the area, in honor of Ephraim Logan, a trapper who died in the area.

When the Latter-day Saints gathered to set the boundaries of the city and select a name, they decided to use Logan, after the river.⁴

As the first temple in Europe, the Bern Switzerland Temple was originally called the Swiss Temple. It was later renamed after the city of Bern and was also the first temple where a film presentation was used and where English was not the primary language. On its 50th anniversary in 2005, an angel Moroni statue was added to its spire.⁵

The town of Cardston, Alberta, Canada, was named after Brigham Young’s son-in-law Charles Ora Card, who settled the area formerly known as Lee’s Creek in 1887 with a small group of Latter-day Saints. The Cardston Temple was originally called the Alberta Temple and was the first built outside the United States, the first without a steeple or assembly room, and the first to have an engraved cornerstone. It also took 10 years to build because of delays caused by World War I.⁶

While many temples receive the name of the city they were built in or a well-known nearby city, some temples are named for other landmarks and features surrounding them. Here are just a few.

Built in the city of South Jordan in 1977, the Jordan River Utah Temple was the seventh temple in Utah and was built using funds raised entirely by local Church members. The Jordan River Temple was given its name by President Spencer W. Kimball, who called it after the nearby Jordan River, which runs through the middle of the Salt Lake Valley and was named by the pioneers when they arrived in 1847.⁷

South Jordan’s second temple made history, as its construction was the first time two temples would be built in the same city. It was announced as the South Jordan Utah Temple but was later renamed the Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. Named after the nearby Oquirrh Mountain range, the word “oquirrh” comes from the Shoshoni language spoken by the Goshute tribe and fittingly translates to “wooded mountain” or “shining mountains.”⁸

Located in Yuba City, California, the Feather River California Temple was named after the river two miles east of the temple. The Feather River Temple was built on the former Yuba City California Stake Center and was constructed largely during the COVID-19 pandemic.⁹

The Red Cliffs Utah Temple is the second temple in St. George, so it needed a unique name. It was originally going to be called the Washington County Utah Temple. However, in 2020, shortly before the temple’s groundbreaking, the name “Red Cliffs” was adopted after President Jeffrey R. Holland and the late Sister Patricia T. Holland drove past the nearby red cliffs of Petticoat Mountain and proposed the name. The Red Cliffs Temple was dedicated in March of this year.¹⁰

Originally announced as the Tooele Valley Utah Temple, the Deseret Peak Utah Temple was renamed after a change of plans for the location. Its name now comes from the nearby Deseret Peak—dubbed by the Latter-day Saint pioneers who settled Tooele Valley.¹¹

Known since its construction as the Provo Utah Temple, the first temple in Provo is currently under major renovation and will reopen as the Provo Utah Rock Canyon Temple. The temple sits at the mouth of Rock Canyon, which is where the new name comes from. The original temple was the sixth temple in Utah and had no angel Moroni statue for the first 31 years after its dedication.¹²

1. https://thirdhour.org/blog/faith/lds-temples/the-history-of-the-st-george-temple/

2. https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/s/ST_GEORGE.shtml

3. https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/m/MANTI.shtml#:~:text=Brigham%20Young%20named%20the%20site,was%20incorporated%20in%20February%201851

4.
https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/l/LOGAN.shtml#:~:text=By%20March%201860%20there%20were,was%20elected%20Logan's%20first%20mayor

https://wildaboututah.org/short-history-of-logan-river/

https://www.mendonutah.net/history/cache_county/14.htm

5.
https://rsc.byu.edu/regional-studies-latter-day-saint-church-history-europe/pivotal-swiss-temple

6. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cardston#:~:text=The%20town%20of%20Cardston%20is,Church)%20in%20the%20United%20States

https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/cardston-alberta-temple/#:~:text=The%20Cardston%20Alberta%20Temple%20was,to%20bid%20to%20prominent%20architects

7. https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/multimedia/file/Jordan-River-Utah-Temple-History.pdf

8. https://www.thechurchnews.com/almanac/temples/oquirrh-mountain-utah/

9. https://www.thechurchnews.com/almanac/temples/feather-river-california/#:~:text=Interior%20Photos%20of%20the%20Feather%20River%20California%20Temple&text=Although%20located%20in%20Yuba%20City,Center%20had%20stood%20for%20decades

10. https://www.thechurchnews.com/almanac/temples/red-cliffs-utah/#:~:text=The%20Red%20Cliffs%20temple%20used,cliffs%20of%20the%20Petticoat%20Mountain

11. https://universe.byu.edu/2021/12/09/tooele-residents-thrilled-about-temple-despite-social-media-backlash/#:~:text=January%2019%2C%202021,moved%20to%20its%20current%20location

https://www.ffkr.com/work/deseret-peak-utah-temple/

12.
https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/provo-utah-rock-canyon-temple/

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