Hortense
Hortense was last recorded in 1976, when 6 babies were given it; 6,313 Americans have been recorded with it between 1880 and 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Hortense by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Hortense mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Hortense is “a female given name from French.” Its etymology gives the senses “name of a Roman gens” (Hortēnsius) and “having to do with gardens” (hortēnsis).
From the French form of the Latin Hortēnsia, feminine form of Hortēnsius (“name of a Roman gens”), probably derived from hortēnsis (“having to do with gardens”) on the basis that the first to bear the name was a gardener.
/ˈhɔː(ɹ)tɛns/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Hortense?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #8,506, in 1976; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
229 babies in 1919, the peak
Hortense peaked in 1919, when 229 girls were given it, #436 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 6 | #8,506 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,580 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,598 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,860 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,445 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,536 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 7 | #5,847 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 10 | #4,406 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 9 | #4,628 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 6 | #6,065 | under 0.01 |
Every recorded year (95)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | 10 | #4,459 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 10 | #4,364 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 12 | #3,873 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 13 | #3,672 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 16 | #3,137 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 14 | #3,316 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 25 | #2,282 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 22 | #2,438 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 22 | #2,416 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 25 | #2,180 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 26 | #2,095 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 22 | #2,258 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 42 | #1,489 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 43 | #1,443 | 0.02 |
| 1950 | 25 | #1,929 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 36 | #1,552 | 0.02 |
| 1948 | 44 | #1,393 | 0.03 |
| 1947 | 45 | #1,383 | 0.03 |
| 1946 | 44 | #1,310 | 0.03 |
| 1945 | 31 | #1,461 | 0.02 |
| 1944 | 31 | #1,467 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 43 | #1,237 | 0.03 |
| 1942 | 47 | #1,157 | 0.03 |
| 1941 | 60 | #950 | 0.05 |
| 1940 | 43 | #1,107 | 0.04 |
| 1939 | 53 | #980 | 0.05 |
| 1938 | 60 | #919 | 0.05 |
| 1937 | 46 | #1,055 | 0.04 |
| 1936 | 57 | #904 | 0.05 |
| 1935 | 74 | #786 | 0.07 |
| 1934 | 55 | #928 | 0.05 |
| 1933 | 81 | #734 | 0.08 |
| 1932 | 93 | #707 | 0.09 |
| 1931 | 99 | #669 | 0.09 |
| 1930 | 95 | #713 | 0.08 |
| 1929 | 120 | #631 | 0.11 |
| 1928 | 135 | #606 | 0.12 |
| 1927 | 151 | #577 | 0.13 |
| 1926 | 174 | #531 | 0.15 |
| 1925 | 178 | #533 | 0.15 |
| 1924 | 212 | #479 | 0.17 |
| 1923 | 182 | #522 | 0.15 |
| 1922 | 202 | #486 | 0.17 |
| 1921 | 217 | #466 | 0.18 |
| 1920 | 223 | #452 | 0.19 |
| 1919 | 229 | #436 | 0.20 |
| 1918 | 218 | #453 | 0.19 |
| 1917 | 185 | #484 | 0.17 |
| 1916 | 202 | #444 | 0.19 |
| 1915 | 209 | #415 | 0.21 |
| 1914 | 161 | #421 | 0.21 |
| 1913 | 150 | #396 | 0.24 |
| 1912 | 133 | #401 | 0.24 |
| 1911 | 104 | #396 | 0.25 |
| 1910 | 102 | #392 | 0.26 |
| 1909 | 87 | #392 | 0.25 |
| 1908 | 69 | #436 | 0.21 |
| 1907 | 60 | #464 | 0.19 |
| 1906 | 65 | #425 | 0.22 |
| 1905 | 63 | #428 | 0.22 |
| 1904 | 61 | #415 | 0.22 |
| 1903 | 72 | #378 | 0.27 |
| 1902 | 49 | #447 | 0.19 |
| 1901 | 51 | #424 | 0.21 |
| 1900 | 60 | #429 | 0.20 |
| 1899 | 47 | #425 | 0.20 |
| 1898 | 49 | #437 | 0.19 |
| 1897 | 58 | #379 | 0.25 |
| 1896 | 49 | #410 | 0.21 |
| 1895 | 50 | #399 | 0.21 |
| 1894 | 55 | #378 | 0.25 |
| 1893 | 47 | #392 | 0.22 |
| 1892 | 38 | #436 | 0.18 |
| 1891 | 31 | #463 | 0.17 |
| 1890 | 30 | #478 | 0.16 |
| 1889 | 25 | #502 | 0.14 |
| 1888 | 36 | #417 | 0.20 |
| 1887 | 19 | #517 | 0.13 |
| 1886 | 15 | #587 | 0.10 |
| 1885 | 20 | #474 | 0.15 |
| 1884 | 17 | #509 | 0.13 |
| 1883 | 23 | #389 | 0.20 |
| 1882 | 16 | #465 | 0.15 |
| 1881 | 14 | #456 | 0.15 |
| 1880 | 14 | #457 | 0.15 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Hortense a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Hortense has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 95 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Hortense: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Hortense, and how old are they?
An estimated 733 Americans named Hortense and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (12% of everyone recorded); the median is 78 years old and half are between 70 and 86. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 1,433 people named Hortense (1,426 women and girls, 7 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,103 born in the U.S. The Census count is 30% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Hortense born?
The states with the most babies named Hortense are Texas, New York and Virginia, with 49% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Virginia is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 703 | not ranked | 2.6× |
| New York | 570 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| Virginia | 200 | not ranked | 1.5× |
| California | 185 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Missouri | 179 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Illinois | 165 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 119 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Florida | 114 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| North Carolina | 110 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 105 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Hortense is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Hortense is most over-represented in Texas: since 1910 it was given 2.6 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Hortense with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 8,107 babies since 1880, Hortense is the most given (78% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Hortense
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Hortense and names like it
- Compare Hortense and HortensiaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1910sHortense peaked in 1919.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Hortense since 1910.
- French namesWiktionary’s origin for Hortense: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1919The year the most babies were named Hortense.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Hortense alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with HMost given first.