Honora
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "honor" or "respected one".
Name Census estimates that about 797 living Americans carry the first name Honora. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Honora today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Honora births was 1919 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Honora. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Honora with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
797
~ 1 in 430,056 Americans
Peak year
1919
28 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,800
Tracked since 1880
Census
Honora in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 921 people with the first name Honora, which placed it at #13,202 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#13,202
National first-name rank
People counted
921
921 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Honora
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Honora is White at 80.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Hispanic (5.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Honora described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Honora at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.0% · 737
- Black or African American6.4% · 59
- Hispanic or Latino5.4% · 50
- Two or more races4.7% · 43
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 10
Popularity
Honora: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Honora from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 202 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1910s peak, Honora remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Honora by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Honora during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Honoras live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Honora, while Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 51 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Honora
The name Honora has its roots in Latin, deriving from the word "honorus" which means "honorable" or "respected." It emerged during the Roman Empire and was primarily used by noble families to signify honor and virtue.
Honora gained prominence in early Christian tradition as it was borne by several early saints and martyrs. One of the earliest recorded examples is Saint Honora, a 4th-century virgin martyr who was executed during the Diocletian persecution of Christians. Her feast day is celebrated on February 8th in the Roman Catholic Church.
In the 6th century, Honora was the name of a Frankish princess who married the Visigothic King Sigebert I. Their marriage helped forge an alliance between the Franks and Visigoths, playing a significant role in the political landscape of the time.
During the Middle Ages, Honora was a popular name among the nobility and aristocracy, particularly in France and England. Honora de Balun, a 12th-century English noblewoman, was one of the first recorded instances of the name in Britain.
In literary works, Honora appears in William Shakespeare's play "Titus Andronicus," where she is the daughter of the titular character. This reference helped to further popularize the name in the 16th century.
Notable historical figures with the name Honora include:
1. Honora Sneyd (1714-1786), an English aristocrat and beauty, who was courted by both Samuel Johnson and James Boswell.
2. Honora Edgeworth (1767-1849), an English writer and novelist, best known for her novel "Belinda."
3. Honora Burnett (1798-1888), an American philanthropist and social reformer, who founded the Ladies' Union Aid Association during the American Civil War.
4. Honora Bright (1865-1939), an English writer and suffragist, who advocated for women's rights and education.
5. Honora Foote (1900-1976), an American actress and dancer, known for her roles in several Broadway musicals and films.
While the name Honora has fallen out of widespread use in recent times, it remains a beautiful and historic name with a rich cultural heritage, reflecting honor, virtue, and nobility.
People
Honora + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Honora as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Honora: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Honora?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 797 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Honora going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 430,056 US residents.
Is Honora a common name?
We classify Honora as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,705 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Honora most popular?
The single biggest year for Honora was 1919, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Honora is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Honora in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 921 people with the name Honora, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,202 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Honora in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Honora?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Honora appears almost entirely female. Of the 919 people counted with this name, 99.3% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Honora?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Honora is White at 80.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Hispanic (5.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Honora most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Honora in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.0% (737 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Honora in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Honora a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Honora in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Honora still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Honora in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Honora can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Honora?
Find out how many people share the name Honora on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.