This paper introduced the generalized quadratic hazard rate distribution. This new distribution generalizes several well-known distributions such as generalized exponential, generalized Rayleigh, and generalized linear hazard rate. Some statistical and reliability properties of the new distribution were discussed. The maximum likelihood estimates of its unknown parameters were obtained by simulation. The proposed model and other derived results were utilized for fitting real data set and it was shown that the new distribution provided a better fit than some other known distributions.