Humanverse

Horacio vs Hortencia

American parents have registered 4,502 Horacios since 1880, against 3,969 Hortencias. Horacio is still ahead, with 31 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Horacio against Hortencia, 1880 to 2025 0 30 60 90 120 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Horacio Hortencia

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 119 years in which either name was published, Horacio for 62 years and Hortencia for 57 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Horacio Hortencia
Total US births 4,5023,969
Most in one year 10682
Babies in 2025 316
Estimated living today 3,8002,100
Median age today 3263
Peak year 20011925
Best rank 1,254th boys819th girls
Rank in 2025 3,583rd13,208th
First recorded 19141902
Girls / boys 0 / 4,5023,969 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Hortencias alive today are over 63; half the Horacios are over 32. That is 31 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Horacio and Hortencia.