Spence
Masculine · “The pantry”
A spence was the larder, and the man who kept it was the spencer. The word came from dispensing: the room where the household's food and drink were given out, the officer who held the key, and eventually a surname for his descendants long after anyone remembered the room.
How old is the name Spence?
Spence first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Spence alive today was born around 1973, making them about 52 years old. About 900 people named Spence are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Spence most popular?
Spence peaked in 1902, reaching #1137 nationally. See the whole 1902 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From despense to Spence
The story of Spence
The office was more important than the room. In a great medieval household the spencer controlled what left the store and answered for it in the accounts, which put him among the senior servants and made the post worth inheriting; the family that took the name from it eventually acquired an earldom. The same logic named the butler, from the man in charge of the bottles, and the marshal, from the man in charge of the horses. Every one of those words has risen: the marshal outranks a general, the butler runs the house, and only the spencer stayed where he was and became a jacket instead.
Meaning
The pantry
From the Old French despense, a store of provisions, and behind it the Latin verb about weighing out. The same root gives dispense, expense and pension: all of them about paying out by measure. The surname is a shortening of Spencer rather than an independent form.
How the name formed
- despense
- Spencer
- Spence
Pronouncing Spence
SPENS
One syllable. The final e is there to keep the c soft, which is the job it does in fence, hence and prince; without it the word would end in a k sound.
Nicknames for Spence
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
- 1902
- Most boys named
- 196941 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1137reached in 1902
- Change vs 2022
- −44.4%5 in 2024, from 9
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.
Spences among us
people named Spence are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Spence sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- One syllable, no ambiguity, and nothing at all that can be got wrong.
- Spencer sits behind it as a longer formal form if one is wanted.
- The word behind it has a concrete and traceable history.
- Spencer is far commoner and will be written by anyone taking dictation.
- It reads as a surname and will be entered in the wrong column on forms.
- A one-syllable name gives nothing to shorten.
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Spence
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Spences are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Spence are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Spence in 2025?
- Spence is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Spence with classmates?
- Spence will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More S names
The most-given names starting with S, all years combined.
Steven#271 · Stephen#383 · Samuel#18 · Scott#534 · Sean#489 · Shawn#681 · Stanley#863 · Steve#1609
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Spence? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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