Humanverse

Hortencia vs Hortensia

American parents have registered 3,969 Hortencias since 1880, against 1,794 Hortensias. Hortencia is still ahead, with 6 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Hortencia against Hortensia, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Hortencia Hortensia

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 115 years in which either name was published, Hortencia for 111 years and Hortensia for 4 years. The lead changed hands 7 times.

Side by side

  Hortencia Hortensia
Total US births 3,9691,794
Most in one year 8266
Babies in 2025 6under 5
Estimated living today 2,100770
Median age today 6369
Peak year 19251928
Best rank 819th girls902nd girls
Rank in 2025 13,208thunranked
First recorded 19021896
Girls / boys 3,969 / 01,794 / 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 Hortensias alive today are over 69; half the Hortencias are over 63. That is 6 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: Hortencia and Hortensia.