9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Homer

Pronunciation
[Ho-mer]
Gender
Male
Meaning
Security
Origin
Greek
Two of the greatest works of Greek epic poetry, the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey", are attributed to Homer. Homer Simpson is the king of lazy and lover of donuts.

About the Name Homer

Homer is recorded here with a Greek origin and the meaning "security." The etymology of the name in its ancient Greek context is genuinely uncertain — classical scholars have debated whether it relates to the Greek homeros ("hostage" or perhaps "pledge") or to other roots, and no consensus has been reached. What is clear is that the name became deeply embedded in the English-speaking world largely through association with the ancient Greek poetic tradition, making it a name with enormous cultural weight even if its precise linguistic roots remain disputed.

Homer is the name traditionally given to the ancient Greek poet credited with composing the Iliad and the Odyssey, the two foundational epics of Western literature — though nothing certain is known about him as a historical individual, and biographical details remain a matter of scholarly debate.

Homer first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 1880 and reached its peak rank of #64 in 1893, reflecting its particular strength in the late-nineteenth-century American naming landscape when classical and literary names were broadly fashionable. The name remained in the top-1000 through 1920, last ranking at #100 with 1,722 births, and accumulated 15,201 total tracked births. Today Homer carries a combination of ancient literary gravitas and mid-American plainspokenness — an unusual pairing that gives it a distinctive character. Recorded variants include Homere and Homero, French and Spanish cognate forms respectively.

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.

Quick Facts About Homer

1,029
Greek baby names in our dictionary
484
Greek male names
153
5-letter H-names in our dictionary
504
H-male names total
1880–1920
years of US SSA records (37 total)
15,201
total US births named Homer (all years)

US Popularity History (1880–1920)

➖ Steady: Homer slipped 2 places in the US boys ranking over the last 5 years (#98 in 1915 → #100 in 1920).

Annual US births named Homer by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 1920 with 1,722 boys named Homer (boy rank #100 that year).

Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.

Famous People Named Homer

1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Homer.

  • Homer was a legendary ancient Greek poet who composed the great epics the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Browse more famous Homers and similar first names →

Looking for names like Homer?

A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.

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Compare Homer to Other Popular Names

Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Homer against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).

Homer vs Liam 239,320 births since 2014
Homer vs Noah 230,181 births since 2014
Homer vs Oliver 164,076 births since 2014
Homer vs William 159,918 births since 2014
Homer vs James 157,850 births since 2014
Homer vs Elijah 153,351 births since 2014
Homer vs Benjamin 147,449 births since 2014
Homer vs Lucas 141,302 births since 2014
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Homer Baby Name Ideas

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