Terance
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "tender, soft."
Name Census estimates that about 2,556 living Americans carry the first name Terance. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Terance today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Terance births was 1991 (76 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Terance. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
2.6K
~ 1 in 134,098 Americans
Peak year
1991
76 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,231
Tracked since 1938
Census
Terance in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,019 people with the first name Terance, which placed it at #7,524 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,524
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,019 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Terance
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Terance is Black at 53.4%. The next largest groups are White (36.0%) and Two or More Races (4.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Terance described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Terance at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.4% · 1,078
- White36.0% · 726
- Two or more races4.4% · 88
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 74
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 40
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 13
Popularity
Terance: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Terance from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 600 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Terance by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Terance during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Terances live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Terance, while South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Terance
The name Terance is derived from the Latin name Tertius, which means "third" or "the third one". It is believed to have originated in ancient Rome during the Roman Empire era, around the 1st century AD.
The name Terance was initially used as a personal name, as well as a cognomen or family name among Roman families. It was often given to the third son born in a family, indicating their birth order. The spelling variations of the name during that time included Tertius, Tertullus, and Terrentius.
One of the earliest recorded references to the name Terance can be found in the works of the Roman playwright Terence (195-159 BC), whose full name was Publius Terentius Afer. He was a renowned author of comedies, and his plays were widely popular during his lifetime and for centuries after.
In the 4th century AD, the name Terance was also borne by a Christian martyr named Saint Terence, who was killed during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor Decius in 250 AD. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
During the Middle Ages, the name Terance continued to be used, particularly in areas that were part of the former Roman Empire. One notable figure from this period was Terance of Portugal (1391-1457), a Franciscan friar and missionary who worked in Africa and Asia.
In the Renaissance era, the name Terance was popularized by the English poet and playwright Terence Vere Taaffe (1548-1605), who was also known as Terence Vere. He was a prominent figure in the English literary circles of the Elizabethan era.
Another famous bearer of the name was the French philosopher and mathematician Terence Tao (born 1975), who is widely regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of the 21st century and has made significant contributions to various fields, including harmonic analysis, combinatorics, and number theory.
People
Terance + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Terance as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Terance: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Terance?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,556 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Terance going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 134,098 US residents.
Is Terance a common name?
We classify Terance as "Rare". It ranks above 94.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,840 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Terance most popular?
The single biggest year for Terance was 1991, when 76 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Terance is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Terance in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,019 people with the name Terance, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,524 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Terance in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Terance?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Terance leans strongly male. 2,001 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 22 female bearers (1.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Terance?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Terance is Black at 53.4%. The next largest groups are White (36.0%) and Two or More Races (4.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Terance most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Terance in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.4% (1,078 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Terance in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Terance a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Terance in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Terance still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Terance in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Terance can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Terance?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.