I'm afraid the point of this question (the choice of the three Latin writers) was lost on me until I'd thought about it for quite some time. It is of course that all their names are familiar today as boys' names (sort of).
Maybe I was thrown off the scent by the inclusion of Virgil. Once the penny had dropped, the only two Virgils I could think of (apart from the Latin poet) were Virgil Earp and Virgil Grissom; then of course there's Virgil Tracy, who was named after Virgil Grissom.
If you look hard enough you can find other Virgils – most of them American. For example: Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) was an American composer and critic, described by Wikipedia as "instrumental in the development of the 'American Sound' in classical music."
My research into Virgil as a forename made me realise that the names Horace and Terence almost certainly have the same origin.
According to Wikipedia, it's Horace, Virgil and Ovid that are "are often ranked as the three canonical poets of Latin Literature". But obviously Ovid doesn't fit in with the "boys' names" theme.
The Latin poet Virgil (70–19 BC) is best remembered for The Aeneid, which tells the legendary story of the founding of Rome after the fall of Troy and is often described as the "national epic" of the ancient Romans. Ovid (43 BC – 17 or 18 AD) is best known for the Metamorphoses, another epic mythological narrative. The Odes of Horace (65–8 BC) were described by a near–contemporary as "just about the only Latin lyrics worth reading".
Terence lived in the early 2nd century BC, and is remembered for his six comic plays, including Phormio, The Eunuch and The Brothers.
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