Grace
Masculine · “grace”
Grace is given to girls far more often — 534,935 girls against 1,405 boys since 1880. See Grace as a girl name
A male Grace in 1886 is almost certainly a surname. Le Gras was a Norman byname for a fat man, it became Grace in Ireland and England, and American families used surnames as boys' given names constantly in that period.
How old is the name Grace?
Grace was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Grace alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 600 people named Grace are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Grace most popular?
Grace peaked in 1886, reaching #540 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 6,263 places below that high. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gratia to Grace
The story of Grace
Nineteenth-century American families took surnames for boys' first names on an enormous scale, and the sources were family surnames, local worthies and national figures. Grace as a surname is well established in Ireland through the Anglo-Norman Grace family, and in England as a variant of Gras and Grasse. Meanwhile Grace as a woman's virtue name was rising steadily through the same period. The male row in the American records peaks in 1886 and fades by 1920, which is precisely the arc of the surname-as-given-name habit, and the woman's name has continued without interruption since.
Meaningscholars disagree
grace, or the fat one
The woman's name Grace is the English abstract noun, from Latin gratia, favor or thanks, used as a virtue name from the Reformation onward. The surname Grace is a separate word: Anglo-Norman le gras, the fat one, which became a hereditary name in Ireland with the Le Gras or Grace family of Kilkenny. A male bearer in the nineteenth century usually descends from the second.
How the name formed
- gratia
- grace
- Grace
Related forms: Grace · Grazia · Gracia
Pronouncing Grace
GRAYSS
One syllable, rhyming with face. Identical for the surname and the virtue name; nothing in the sound distinguishes them.
Nicknames for Grace
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 192930 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #540reached in 1886
- Change vs 2023
- −14.3%12 in 2025, from 14
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Grace in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Grace in French — same name
- Grazia in Italian — same name
- Gracia in Spanish — same name
Graces among us
people named Grace are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Grace
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Grace sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Grace beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Grace in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two genuine histories behind it, one a virtue and one a Norman surname.
- One syllable and five letters, impossible to mispronounce.
- Immediately familiar to everyone.
- In the United States and everywhere else it is overwhelmingly a woman's name.
- It is an ordinary English noun and appears in sentences constantly.
- The Norman surname it may descend from means the fat one.
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What they receive
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Grace
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Graces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Grace are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Grace in 2025?
- Grace ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Grace?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Grace — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Grace with classmates?
- Grace will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Grace
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Grace? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Grace and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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