Horace
Masculine
Horace is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 54,154 boys against 202 girls since 1880.
Horace comes from a Roman family name, and the poet who carried it is still quoted daily by people who have no idea they are doing it. Carpe diem is his line. So is the phrase about the golden mean.
How old is the name Horace?
Horace was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Horace alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 15,500 people named Horace are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Horace most popular?
Horace peaked in 1880, reaching #79 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 6,064 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From Horatius to Horace
The story of Horace
The Horatii were an old Roman clan, and Roman legend put three of their sons at the center of a famous duel with a rival family. The name reached the modern world chiefly through one man: Quintus Horatius Flaccus, the poet writing under Augustus, whose odes and letters became a fixed part of European education for the better part of two millennia. Any schoolboy taught Latin met him. That is why the name resurfaced in English, Italian and French at the point when a classical education was the mark of an educated man.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name descends from the Roman clan name Horatius, and the meaning of Horatius itself was already lost by the classical period. Roman family names were often much older than the written record, and this is one the Romans could not explain either. What is documented is the family, not the sense.
How the name formed
- Horatius
- Horace
Related forms: Orazio · Horacio · Horatius
Pronouncing Horace
HOR-iss
Two syllables, stress on the first. The second syllable is unstressed and light, closer to -iss than to -ace.
Nicknames for Horace
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
- 19211,313 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #79reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- −36.4%14 in 2025, from 22
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.
Horace in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Orazio in Italian — same name
- Horacio in Spanish — same name
- Horatius in Latin — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, California, Maine.
Horaces among us
people named Horace are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Horace
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
Horace 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
Horace beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Horace 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 one of the most quoted poets in European history, which is an unusually specific thing to hand a child.
- Orazio and Horacio are the same name in Italian and Spanish, so it travels across the Romance languages intact.
- The unknown etymology is honest rather than empty: the Romans had lost it too.
- The spelling suggests it might rhyme with 'face', and it does not, so expect to correct people.
- It reads as formal and old-fashioned in English, and there is no widely used short form to soften it.
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What they receive
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Horace
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Horaces are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 15,500 people named Horace are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Horace in 2025?
- Horace ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Horace?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Horace — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Horace with classmates?
- Horace will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Horace
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Horace? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Horace and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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