Chance
Masculine · Latin roots · “fortune”
Chance is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 54,622 boys against 1,388 girls since 1880. See Chance as a girl name
Chance is one of the small handful of English words that crossed over into the naming pool and stayed there. Behind it sits an old image: the Latin verb for falling, carried through Old French into a word for how the dice come down. It is a single syllable that spells itself, and it has held a steady place in American records across many generations, with particular strength in Texas, Florida and Georgia.
How old is the name Chance?
Chance first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Chance alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 53,500 people named Chance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chance most popular?
Chance peaked in 1996, reaching #154 nationally. Today it ranks #442, 288 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Chance appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From cadere (Latin, 'to fall') to Chance
The story of Chance
The line runs from Latin cadere, 'to fall', through cadentia to Old French cheance — the falling of dice, and so a person's fortune. Middle English took it as chea(u)nce and English kept it as the everyday word chance. It also survives as an English surname, and in the United States it has long doubled as the short form of Chauncey, which is how a good many bearers first arrived at it. The word-name and the surname route have run together for so long that most families using it now simply use the English word.
Meaning
fortune, luck — literally 'the way things fall'
From Old French cheance, from Latin cadentia, from cadere 'to fall'. The dice image is in the word from the beginning.
How the name formed
- cadereLatin, 'to fall'
- cadentia
- cheanceOld French
- cheanceu
- Chance
Pronouncing Chance
CHANSS
One syllable, rhyming with dance. Because it is an ordinary English word, almost no American reader hesitates over it, and it survives being said down a phone line or across a noisy room.
Nicknames for Chance
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 19962,243 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #154reached in 1996
- Change vs 2023
- −16.6%711 in 2025, from 853
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Chance in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Georgia.
Chances among us
people named Chance are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,402 born in 2025 was named Chance
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Randolph test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Chance's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Randolph climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Randolph's path sketches the road Chance is walking now.
Chance sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Chance is headed
Chance is easing off slowly — about 18% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Chance beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Chance in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, spelled exactly like a word every English speaker already knows — no spelling out, no correcting.
- Pronunciation is fixed and obvious; there is no second acceptable way to say it.
- Needs no nickname and shortens to nothing, so what you write on the birth certificate is what gets used.
- Works as a surname as well as a given name, which gives it easy company alongside other surname-style names.
- A documented line back to Latin, rather than a recent coinage — the history is real and traceable.
- It is also a common noun, so the child will meet their name inside ordinary sentences: take a chance, second chance, fat chance. Most bearers grow entirely used to this, but it does happen daily.
- The dice-and-luck sense sits close to gambling, and a few people will make that joke. It is a mild association rather than a heavy one.
- Outside the United States the word is understood but the name is not much used, so it may need a moment's explanation abroad.
- Most people carrying it are young adults rather than children, so it can read as belonging to a particular stretch of years — noticeable mainly to adults, rarely to classmates.
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Chance
Masculine · Latin roots · #442 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Chances are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 53,500 people named Chance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chance in 2025?
- Chance ranks #442 among US boy names in 2025, with 711 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Chance?
- About 1 in every 2,402 US boys born in 2025 was named Chance — 711 in all.
- Will my child share the name Chance with classmates?
- Chance will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Chance
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jalen#442 · Sergio#441 · Valentino#444 · Sylas#440 · Uriel#445 · Jasai#439 · Apollo#445 · Mario#438
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Chance? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Chance and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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