Trace
Trace was given to 340 boys in 2025, #758 among boys’ names; 14,112 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 13,700 Americans named Trace and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 19 years old and half are between 11 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Trace by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Trace mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Trace is “a short form of the female given name Tracy or Tracey.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Trace?
#758 among boys’ names, 2025
Trace rose from #801 in 2015 to #758 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.15 to 0.20 per 1,000.
534 babies in 2008, the peak
Trace peaked in 2008, when 534 boys were given it, #510 among boys’ names. The 340 births of 2025 are 64% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 340 | #758 | 0.20 |
| 2024 | 383 | #703 | 0.22 |
| 2023 | 404 | #674 | 0.24 |
| 2022 | 373 | #708 | 0.21 |
| 2021 | 348 | #736 | 0.20 |
| 2020 | 316 | #763 | 0.18 |
| 2019 | 302 | #776 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 319 | #745 | 0.18 |
| 2017 | 266 | #835 | 0.14 |
| 2016 | 287 | #805 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (70)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 291 | #801 | 0.15 |
| 2014 | 308 | #763 | 0.16 |
| 2013 | 382 | #644 | 0.20 |
| 2012 | 379 | #635 | 0.20 |
| 2011 | 437 | #573 | 0.23 |
| 2010 | 494 | #524 | 0.26 |
| 2009 | 505 | #531 | 0.25 |
| 2008 | 534 | #510 | 0.26 |
| 2007 | 437 | #586 | 0.21 |
| 2006 | 470 | #537 | 0.23 |
| 2005 | 445 | #543 | 0.22 |
| 2004 | 447 | #531 | 0.23 |
| 2003 | 496 | #496 | 0.25 |
| 2002 | 437 | #521 | 0.23 |
| 2001 | 369 | #564 | 0.19 |
| 2000 | 384 | #551 | 0.20 |
| 1999 | 389 | #535 | 0.20 |
| 1998 | 524 | #439 | 0.27 |
| 1997 | 421 | #496 | 0.22 |
| 1996 | 202 | #748 | 0.11 |
| 1995 | 161 | #853 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 172 | #804 | 0.09 |
| 1993 | 158 | #842 | 0.08 |
| 1992 | 127 | #952 | 0.06 |
| 1991 | 139 | #894 | 0.07 |
| 1990 | 116 | #975 | 0.06 |
| 1989 | 96 | #1,068 | 0.05 |
| 1988 | 58 | #1,368 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 47 | #1,526 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 58 | #1,282 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 91 | #960 | 0.05 |
| 1984 | 28 | #1,974 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 19 | #2,568 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 27 | #2,054 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 21 | #2,414 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 19 | #2,609 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 18 | #2,661 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 24 | #2,066 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 20 | #2,356 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 22 | #2,171 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 21 | #2,198 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 15 | #2,662 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 24 | #1,867 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 33 | #1,505 | 0.02 |
| 1971 | 42 | #1,306 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 40 | #1,333 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 32 | #1,434 | 0.02 |
| 1968 | 34 | #1,338 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 47 | #1,086 | 0.03 |
| 1966 | 64 | #913 | 0.04 |
| 1965 | 71 | #872 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 23 | #1,694 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 45 | #1,162 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 34 | #1,362 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 25 | #1,631 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 28 | #1,549 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 22 | #1,757 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 20 | #1,834 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 17 | #2,014 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 17 | #2,009 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Trace a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 14,112 Americans recorded as Trace, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 340 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Trace: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Trace, and how old are they?
13,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 14,112 Americans ever recorded as Trace. The median Trace alive today is 19 years old; half are between 11 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 11,398 people named Trace (442 women and girls, 10,956 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,771 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 226 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 617 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,530 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,080 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,300 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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 Trace born?
The states with the most babies named Trace are Texas, Ohio and California, with 24% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 34 | #806 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 21 | #512 | 1.1× |
| California | 19 | #1,116 | 0.4× |
| Tennessee | 18 | #450 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 17 | #882 | 1.1× |
| Louisiana | 16 | #334 | 1.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 15 | #628 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 13 | #754 | 0.7× |
| North Carolina | 13 | #715 | 0.7× |
| Indiana | 11 | #619 | 1.4× |
Where Trace is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Trace is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1956 it was given 1.8 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 boys’ 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 Trace 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 14,929 babies since 1880, Trace is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 340 of their 363 babies (94%), again the most given.
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 Trace
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 Trace and names like it
- Compare Trace and TrayceBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sTrace peaked in 2008.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Trace since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Trace.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Trace alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with TMost given first.