Terrance
Masculine
Terrance is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 70,170 boys against 751 girls since 1880. See Terrance as a girl name
Terrance doubles a letter in a Roman name, and it is recorded for boys and girls alike. The playwright who carried that name wrote six comedies, and the thing everybody quotes is half a line from one of them.
How old is the name Terrance?
Terrance first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Terrance alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 60,000 people named Terrance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Terrance most popular?
Terrance peaked in 1979, reaching #179 nationally. Today it ranks #1564, 1,385 places below that high. See the whole 1979 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Terrance
In one of the plays a character justifies interfering in a neighbor's business with a line that runs, roughly: I am a man, and nothing human is foreign to me. It has been quoted for two thousand years by people arguing for a common humanity, and it is worth knowing that in context it is a nosy old man defending gossip, and the audience is meant to laugh. That has not slowed the quoting down at all. The playwright himself came to Rome as an enslaved North African, was educated and freed by a senator, took the senator's family name, and wrote plays that Roman schoolchildren were still being drilled in four centuries later.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Roman family name behind it has no recovered sense. The best-known bearer took it from the man who freed him, which is how Roman naming worked for the formerly enslaved.
Pronouncing Terrance
TAIR-unss
Two syllables with the stress in front. The doubled r makes no audible difference.
Nicknames for Terrance
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
- 1895
- Most boys named
- 19801,379 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #179reached in 1979
- Change vs 2023
- −29.7%109 in 2025, from 155
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.
Terrance in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Georgia.
Terrances among us
people named Terrance are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 15,670 born in 2025 was named Terrance
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 Grady test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Terrance's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Grady climbed just as high around 1911, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Grady's path sketches the road Terrance is walking now.
Terrance 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 Terrance is headed
Terrance is easing off slowly — about 17% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium 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.
Terrance beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Terrance in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Terry is available as a short form and works for a child of either sex.
- The sound is thoroughly familiar, so the name is never a puzzle to say.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- Terrence and Terence are both in the record, so the spelling will be checked back with you.
- The doubled letter cannot be heard, so the spelling has to be given aloud every time.
- The Roman name's own meaning is not recovered, so that question has no answer.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Terrance
Masculine · #1564 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Terrances are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 60,000 people named Terrance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Terrance in 2025?
- Terrance ranks #1564 among US boy names in 2025, with 109 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Terrance?
- About 1 in every 15,670 US boys born in 2025 was named Terrance — 109 in all.
- Will my child share the name Terrance with classmates?
- Terrance will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Terrance
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Payton#1564 · Kalvin#1564 · Kamdyn#1564 · Dwayne#1564 · Kacen#1564 · Abdulrahman#1564 · Emeric#1571 · Vivaan#1571
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Terrance? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Terrance and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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