Horacio
Masculine
Horacio is the Spanish form of Horatius, a Roman family name whose meaning nobody has ever established — which is unusual for a name carried by so famous a poet.
How old is the name Horacio?
Horacio first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Horacio alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 3,900 people named Horacio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Horacio most popular?
Horacio peaked in 1977, reaching #998 nationally. Today it ranks #3583, 2,585 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Horatius to Horacio
The story of Horacio
The Horatii were a Roman family of the earliest legendary period — three brothers who fought three Curiatii for the fate of Rome, in a story Livy tells. The poet Horace belonged to the same gens by his father's manumission. The name entered Spanish and Italian as Horacio and Orazio and has been used steadily in both; Shakespeare gave it to Hamlet's friend, which fixed it in English literature.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Roman gens name Horatius has no accepted derivation. A connection to hora, an hour or season, has been proposed and is doubted; an Etruscan origin has also been suggested. The name is very old and unexplained.
How the name formed
- Horatius
- Horacio
Related forms: Orazio · Horace · Horácio
Pronouncing Horacio
oh-RAH-see-oh
Four syllables with the stress on the second; the h is silent in Spanish.
Nicknames for Horacio
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 200298 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #998reached in 1977
- Change vs 2023
- +19.2%31 in 2025, from 26
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.
Horacio in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Orazio in Italian — same name
- Horace in English — same name
- Horácio in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Horacios among us
people named Horacio are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 55,099 born in 2025 was named Horacio
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Winslow test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Horacio's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Winslow climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Winslow's path sketches the road Horacio is walking now.
Horacio 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
Where Horacio is headed
Horacio should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Horacio beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Horacio in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Roman family name with a very long literary history.
- Every letter is sounded, so Spanish speakers read it correctly at once.
- Horace stands beside it as a familiar English cousin.
- The silent h in Spanish and the sounded h in English make two different names.
- Seven letters and four syllables is a fair amount for early handwriting.
- The meaning is genuinely unknown despite the name's fame.
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What they receive
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Horacio
Masculine · #3583 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Horacios are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,900 people named Horacio are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Horacio in 2025?
- Horacio ranks #3583 among US boy names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Horacio?
- About 1 in every 55,099 US boys born in 2025 was named Horacio — 31 in all.
- Will my child share the name Horacio with classmates?
- Horacio will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Horacio
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Geoffrey#3583 · Robinson#3583 · Kimani#3583 · Emre#3583 · Yoan#3583 · Anirudh#3583 · Sutter#3583 · Heber#3583
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Horacio? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Horacio and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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