girl's name
Grace
GRAYS
- Origin Latin
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 1
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 100 (US)
- Births on record 666,594
the United States
#38
2025 births
Grace is a girl's name of Latin origin meaning "favor" or "blessing," from gratia. It entered English use as a virtue name among Puritans in the sixteenth century, carrying the specifically theological sense of unearned divine favor.
- Grace is a name of Latin origin.
- Peaked in 2003, when 12,801 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 645 babies in the United States is given this name.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Grace over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 15,276 |
| 1890s | 23,909 |
| 1900s | 27,030 |
| 1910s | 58,135 |
| 1920s | 60,283 |
| 1930s | 31,511 |
| 1940s | 19,443 |
| 1950s | 15,982 |
| 1960s | 11,237 |
| 1970s | 6,096 |
| 1980s | 11,855 |
| 1990s | 39,925 |
| 2000s | 110,905 |
| 2010s | 73,167 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 31,586 |
What Grace means
Grace means favor, kindness, or blessing, from the Latin gratia. In Christian theology the word has a precise sense — favor freely given rather than earned — and it was this meaning, not the everyday one of elegance, that made it a name.
Where Grace comes from
Grace comes from the Latin gratia, meaning favor or thanks, which passed into English through Old French. Its adoption as a given name belongs to the Reformation: English Puritans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries turned abstract virtues into names, producing Grace alongside Faith, Hope, Prudence, and Mercy. Grace outlasted almost all of them, partly because it also functioned as an ordinary English word with pleasant secular meanings. In Ireland the name took hold separately as an anglicization of the Irish Gráinne. The Latin root also gives English gratitude, grateful, and gratis.
Grace in use
Grace is one of very few Puritan virtue names still in common use today.
How popular is Grace?
In 2025, Grace was given to 5,139 babies in the United States, ranking #38 that year. It is one of the most popular names in the United States.
Where Grace is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Grace is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Grâce | Grâce is Grace written with a circumflex, used in France, where it ranks #1,124. | 640 |
Names that peaked alongside Grace
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Grace also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Grace over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Grace
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Grace in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Grace
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Grace — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Grace
What does the name Grace mean?
Grace means "favor" or "blessing," from the Latin gratia.
Is Grace a religious name?
It was adopted as a virtue name by English Puritans, drawing on the Christian theological sense of unearned divine favor.
What are nicknames for Grace?
Gracie is the most common short form.
How popular is the name Grace?
In 2025, Grace was given to 5,139 babies in the United States, ranking #38 that year. It is one of the most popular names in the United States.
Is Grace a girl's or a boy's name?
Grace is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Grace?
Grace has 1 syllable.
When was Grace most popular?
Grace peaked in 2003, when 12,801 babies were given the name. Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
Is Grace a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Grace currently ranks #1 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.