Hortense is a French feminine given name that comes from Latin meaning gardener. It may refer to:

Persons[edit]

• Hortense Allart (1801–1879), Italian-French feminist writer and essayist
• Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837), stepdaughter of Napoleon and Queen consort of Holland
• Hortense Béwouda (born 1978), sprinter from Cameroon
• Hortense Clews (1926–2006), member of the Belgian Resistance in World War II
• Hortense Dufour (born 1946), French writer
• Hortense Ellis (1941–2000), Jamaican reggae singer
• Hortense Calisher (1911–2009), American fiction writer, author of In the Absence of Angels
• Hortense Gabel (1912–1990), New York Supreme Court Justice
• Hortense Globensky-Prévost (1804–1873), Canadian heroine
• Hortense Gordon (1886–1961), Canadian abstract painter
• Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot (1784–1845), French painter of genre scenes
• Hortense Mancini (1646–1699), Duchess of Mazarin and a mistress of Charles II, King of England
• Hortense Monath (1905–1956), American pianist
• Hortense Powdermaker (1900–1970), American anthropologist
• Hortense Parker (1859–1938), music teacher and daughter of African–American inventor, industrialist and abolitionist John Parker
• Hortense Rhéa (1844–1899), French actress
• Hortense Schneider (1833–1920), French soprano
• Hortense Sparks Ward (1872–1944), pioneering Texas lawyer and women's rights activist
• Hortense Spillers (born 1942), American literary critic and theorist of Black studies

Fictional characters[edit]

• Hortense Bellacourt, the unattractive eldest of the Bellacourt sisters in the Another Period tv series
• Hortense Briggs, in the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
• Hortense Cumberbatch, in the film Secrets & Lies by British director, Mike Leigh
• Hortense Daigle, portrayed by Eileen Heckart in The Bad Seed play and film
• Hortense Derry, as Frank Derry’s Dana Andrews step-mother, portrayed by Gladys George in the film The Best Years of Our Lives
• Hortense McDuck, a Disney character who is Scrooge McDuck's sister and Donald Duck's mother
• Hortense, adopted sister of Michael Roberts in the novel "Small Island" by Andrea Levy
• Hortense Toomey Campanati, in the novel Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess
• Mademoiselle Hortense, in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• Hortense, later known as Mist, from the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky
• Hortense, Donald Duck's pet in comic books and a cartoon – see Donald's Ostrich
• Hortense, Sapphire's sister in the TV show Amos 'n' Andy.
• Hortense, another Disney character who was the horse of young Scrooge McDuck and was named after Scrooge's sister
• Hortense, brothel madam in the TV show Maison Close
• Hortense the Hornbill from Jim Henson's Animal Show