How rare is the name Lance?

86,540 people in the United States have the first name Lance, about 1 in 3,490. It ranks #612 of 53,615 first names in the 2020 Census.

first name

LANCE

#612

of 53,615 first names recorded in the 2020 Census

People
86,540
About
1 in 3,490
This common or more
62.1%
Who bears it

Of the 86,540 people named Lance, 76% reported their origin as White, 10.5% as Black and 4.3% as Hispanic or Latino. Virtually all are male (99.8%). These count how people described themselves on the 2020 Census, not where the name comes from.

Lance peaked in 1970, when 4,173 babies got the name.

Births per year, SSA records 1880–2025
18992025
Peak year
1970
Births that year
4,173
In 2025*
279 ▼93%
Recorded as
almost entirely male

At least 106,184 babies have been given the name since 1899. Years SSA withheld, because fewer than 5 were born, are skipped rather than drawn as zero. * 2025 is the newest year published and it undercounts: a card application is filed some time after a birth.

Lance by decade

Among all names given to American babies, its best decade was the 1970s, when it ranked #271. The largest share of babies named Lance, 32.2%, were born between 1965 and 1980, Generation X's birth years.

1890s#3,9395
1900s#2,46561
1910s#2,809184
1920s#2,663302
1930s#1,335868
1940s#6604,184
1950s#5029,737
1960s#33820,102
1970s#27121,913
1980s#30219,573
1990s#48012,112
2000s#61110,547
2010s#1,1754,784
2020s#1,6871,812
Before 19010%
Greatest Generation 1901–270.5%
Silent Generation 1928–452.7%
Baby boom 1946–6420.4%
Generation X 1965–8032.2%
Millennials 1981–9625.5%
Generation Z 1997–1214.2%
2013 and later4.6%

Rank counts both sexes together, among every name SSA recorded that decade; the number under it is births. The 2020s run only to 2025. Generation years follow Pew Research Center, which has not named a generation after 2012.

Where Lance is most common

Compared with all babies born in each state since 1910, Lance has been most common in Hawaii (4.4×), South Dakota (2.4×), and Utah (2.3×), and least common in Rhode Island (0.24×).

102,837 births recorded by state, 1910–2025. 2× means twice as common as nationally. States with fewer than 30 such births are left blank, and SSA withholds any year with fewer than 5 in a state, so small states read low.

Either side of Lance

#610 Kate · 86,820#611 Melody · 86,671#613 Marsha · 86,245#614 Sophie · 86,141

Spelled almost the same

3 first names in the 2020 Census spelled within a letter or two of Lance, most common first.

#23,988 Lanice · 405#31,104 Lancy · 277#52,605 Lange · 106

Also a last name

As a last name, Lance ranks #2,869 of 156,621, with 12,256 people. See Lance as a last name

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