Horace
A masculine name derived from the Latin word "hora" meaning "hour".
Name Census estimates that about 17,018 living Americans carry the first name Horace. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Horace today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Horace births was 1921 (1,313 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Horace. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Horace with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Horace is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 202 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Horace is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Horaces were born before 1969.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Horace have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
17K
~ 1 in 20,141 Americans
Peak year
1921
1,313 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,287
Tracked since 1880
Census
Horace in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 15,666 people with the first name Horace, which placed it at #1,851 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,851
National first-name rank
People counted
16K
15,666 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
49.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Horace
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Horace is Black at 49.8%. The next largest groups are White (43.4%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Horace described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Horace at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American49.8% · 7,805
- White43.4% · 6,797
- Two or more races2.6% · 414
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 289
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 228
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 133
Gender
Gender distribution for Horace
Out of the 54,343 babies given the name Horace since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Horace as a male name
- Ranked #5,287 in 2024
- 18 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (1,313 births)
Horace as a female name
- Ranked #6,940 in 1962
- 5 female births in 1962
- Peak: 1949 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Horace appears almost entirely male. Of the 15,663 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Horace: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Horace from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 11,841 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Horace by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Horace during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Horaces live
The SSA's state-level files cover 46 states and territories. Georgia, Texas, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Horace, while South Dakota, Oregon, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 978 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Horace
Horace is a masculine given name of Latin origin, derived from the Roman family name Horatius. The name can be traced back to the 6th century BC in ancient Rome. It is believed to have originated from the Latin word "hora," meaning "hour" or "time." This etymology suggests that the name may have been associated with concepts of timeliness or punctuality.
In ancient Roman literature, one of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Horace appears in the writings of the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, better known as Horace (65 BC - 8 BC). He was a renowned poet and satirist during the Golden Age of Latin literature under the reign of Emperor Augustus. His works, including the Odes, Epodes, Satires, and Epistles, have had a lasting influence on Western literature.
Another notable historical figure with the name Horace was Horatius Cocles, a Roman hero from the 6th century BC. According to legend, he single-handedly defended a bridge against the invading Etruscan army, allowing his fellow Romans to destroy the bridge and prevent the enemy's advance.
In the medieval period, the name Horace was occasionally used, though it was not as widespread as in ancient times. One notable bearer was Horace Walpole (1717-1797), an English writer, art historian, and politician who is considered one of the founders of the Gothic novel genre.
During the Renaissance, the name experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly among intellectuals and artists who drew inspiration from classical Roman culture. Horace Vere (1565-1635) was an English military leader and courtier who played a significant role in the Thirty Years' War.
In more recent history, Horace Greeley (1811-1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who founded the influential New-York Tribune. He was also a prominent advocate for the settlement of the American West and a candidate for the United States presidency in 1872.
Another notable bearer of the name was Horace Pippin (1888-1946), an African American painter known for his distinctive style and depictions of scenes from World War I, in which he served. His works are celebrated for their historical and artistic significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Horace
People
Horace + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Horace as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Horace: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Horace?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,018 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Horace going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 20,141 US residents.
Is Horace a common name?
We classify Horace as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 54,343 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Horace most popular?
The single biggest year for Horace was 1921, when 1,313 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Horace is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Horace in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 15,666 people with the name Horace, or 5.19 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,851 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Horace in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Horace?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Horace appears almost entirely male. Of the 15,663 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Horace?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Horace is Black at 49.8%. The next largest groups are White (43.4%) and Two or More Races (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Horace most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Horace in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.8% (7,805 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Horace in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Horace a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Horace in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Horace still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Horace in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Horace can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Horace?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.