Grace
Meaning
"grace," from gratia, divine favor made a name; the Puritan virtue name that outlived nearly all its siblings. Elegant enough for a princess, plain enough for a farm girl, and a fixture of the vintage revival
Famously borne by Grace O'Malley, the Irish sea captain who sailed to London in 1593 and won her case from Elizabeth I. Famously borne by Grace Hopper, computer scientist who pioneered machine-independent programming languages and popularized the term 'debugging'.
The story
Grace is the Latin gratia turned directly into a name, divine favor asked for out loud, and it arrived in English nurseries with the Puritans, who named daughters for the virtues they hoped to raise. Most of its siblings, the Patiences and the Temperances, faded with their era; Grace outlived nearly all of them. Grace Kelly gave the name its modern shorthand, the Philadelphia actress who became a princess of Monaco in 1956 and made the word and the name feel like one thing. In US records it held a quiet, steady floor for a hundred years, never gone, never fashionable, then climbed through the 1990s to a peak in the 2000s and has drifted only gently down since. Plain enough for a farm girl, elegant enough for a palace, it may be the most durable of all the virtue names.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Grace peaked in the 2000s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
6,265 people · the #2,341 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 32,258 · median age 36
Among people named Grace living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 28 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Grace
Most people given the name Grace in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Grace deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Grace truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Grace fits with your family’s names and surname.
Where Grace travels
Irish · grace, God's favor; a top-ranked name in Ireland and long loved internationally
Korean American · grace, favor (the single most common English name Korean American parents pair with a Korean home name, as in Grace Eunji Kim)
Filipino American · grace, favor (a beloved Filipino American virtue name)
Chinese American · grace, God's favor; a defining Chinese American virtue name, frequently paired with characters like 恩 or 雅 meaning grace or refinement
Dual-language · grace, favor; the single most common English half of the Korean American dual-name pattern, since it directly translates 은 (eun, "grace, mercy") found in names like Eunji and Eunbi; meaning, not just sound
Filipino · grace, favor (beloved Filipino virtue name)
Keep exploring
Names like Grace · Middle names for Grace · Irish baby names · Dual-language baby names · Korean American baby names · Filipino baby names · Filipino American baby names · Chinese American baby names
Does Grace fit YOUR family?
nametree reads your family’s names and finds the ones that belong. Free, private, no ads.
Add Grace to your family’s tree →