Horatio is an English male given name, an Italianized form[1] of the ancient Roman Latin nomen (name) Horatius, from the Roman gens (clan) Horatia.
It appears to have been first used in England in 1565, in the Tudor era during which the Italian Renaissance movement had started to influence English culture.
Prominent English-language examples of the name "Horatio" include: Horatio de Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury (1565–1635), an English military leader, was one of the earliest English holders of the name, born 34 years before Shakespeare invented the character Horatio in his 1599/1601 play Hamlet.
He was a grandfather of Horatio Townshend, 1st Viscount Townshend (1630–1687), whose son Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend (a ward of Col. Robert Walpole (1650–1700) of Houghton Hall in Norfolk) married Dorothy Walpole, one of the latter's daughters and a sister of Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole (1678–1757) (and of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745), the Prime Minister).
The name Horatio was subsequently much used by the Walpole family and by the 1st Baron Walpole's illustrious younger cousin Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758–1805), his father's great-great grandson, born one year after 1st Baron Walpole's death.