Homer
Masculine
Homer is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 60,912 boys against 367 girls since 1880.
Homer is the name of the poet at the beginning of European literature, and for a long stretch of American history it was an ordinary name for an ordinary boy — a piece of classical education handed down to farm families who had never read a line of Greek.
How old is the name Homer?
Homer was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Homer alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 13,500 people named Homer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Homer most popular?
Homer peaked in 1893, reaching #64 nationally. Today it ranks #4707, 4,643 places below that high. See the whole 1893 chart.
Where it comes from
From Homeros to Homer
The story of Homer
Whether one man composed the Iliad and the Odyssey is one of the oldest arguments in scholarship, but the name attached to them has never moved. It reached American children through the nineteenth-century classical revival, when educated parents named sons for Greek and Roman figures and less educated ones followed the fashion without the Greek. That is why the name turns up so heavily in rural American records: it was prestige made portable.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Greek Homeros has been read as 'hostage' and as 'one who is compelled to follow', but neither is secure, and the ancient Greeks were already speculating about it. The name is older than any explanation of it.
How the name formed
- Homeros
- Homer
Related forms: Homeros · Homero · Omero
Pronouncing Homer
HOH-mur
Two syllables, stress on the first. The Spanish Homero puts the stress in the middle and adds a syllable.
Nicknames for Homer
Limited
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
- 19181,680 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #64reached in 1893
- Change vs 2022
- −40.0%21 in 2025, from 35
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.
Homer in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Homeros in Greek — same name
- Homero in Spanish — same name
- Omero in Italian — same name
Homers among us
people named Homer are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 81,337 born in 2025 was named Homer
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
Homer 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
Homer beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Homer in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A direct line to the founding poems of European literature, which is about as much cultural weight as two syllables can carry.
- Homero and Omero keep it fully alive in Spanish and Italian.
- Two syllables, phonetic, and impossible to misspell.
- Homer Simpson is the first association for essentially everyone born after 1980, and it is not a flattering one.
- In American English 'homer' is also a baseball term, which a child will hear at some point.
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What they receive
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Homer
Masculine · #4707 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Homers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,500 people named Homer are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Homer in 2025?
- Homer ranks #4707 among US boy names in 2025, with 21 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Homer?
- About 1 in every 81,337 US boys born in 2025 was named Homer — 21 in all.
- Will my child share the name Homer with classmates?
- Homer will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Homer
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Shelton#4707 · Constantino#4707 · Adel#4707 · Cord#4707 · Zalman#4707 · Montez#4707 · Kalani#4707 · Ole#4707
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Homer? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Homer and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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