In 2025, 14 US boys were named Horace, making it the 6,245th most common boys’ name of the year, down 938 places from #5,307 in 2024. That is 4 fewer than the 18 boys named Horace in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #79, reached in 1880. The most boys given the name in a single year was 1,313, in 1921. For comparison, it was #4,339 in 2015 and #251 in 1950.
Social Security card records list Horace in every one of the 146 years from 1880 to 2025; in 1880 there were 199 babies with the name. In all, 54,356 US babies have been given the name, 0.4% of them girls and 99.6% boys. Its busiest decade was the 1920s, with 11,841 babies named Horace.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 200 US boys were named Horace; the busiest of those years was 2017, with 28. In 2025 that was about 1 in 122,005 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Related spellings in the SSA files include Horacio (4,502 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Horatio, Horice and Horrace are summarised on this page. The open nickname list we use links it to Horry.