Hance
Of German origin, meaning "grace" or "favor."
Name Census estimates that about 59 living Americans carry the first name Hance. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Hance today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hance births was 1991 (9 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hance. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Hance. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
59
~ 1 in 5,809,396 Americans
Peak year
1991
9 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2018 SSA rank
#12,840
Tracked since 1916
Census
Hance in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 184 people with the first name Hance, which placed it at #40,443 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
#40,443
National first-name rank
People counted
184
184 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hance
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hance is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Black (13.0%) and Hispanic (7.6%). 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 Hance 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 Hance at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.7% · 132
- Black or African American13.0% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 7
- Two or more races2.7% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 2
Popularity
Hance: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hance from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 15 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Hance remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hance 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 Hance during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hance
The name Hance is a variant spelling of the French surname Hance, which is thought to have originated from the medieval Germanic name Hanzo. Hanzo itself is derived from the root Hans, a short form of the Germanic name Johannes, which is the cognate of the Hebrew name Yohanan, meaning "Yahweh is gracious."
The earliest recorded use of the name Hance can be traced back to the 12th century in France, where it was primarily used as a surname. It is believed that the name Hance was adopted as a given name later, perhaps in the 16th or 17th century, as a result of the increasing popularity of using surnames as first names.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Hance was Hance de Navarre, a French nobleman who lived in the late 12th century and was a member of the court of King Philip II of France. Another notable figure was Hance de Valenciennes, a 13th-century French poet and trouvère who wrote several chansons and lais.
In the 14th century, Hance du Chastelier was a French knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War, and his name is recorded in the chronicles of Jean Froissart. A century later, Hance Artur was a Flemish painter who is known for his religious works, including altarpieces and panel paintings.
In the 16th century, Hance Thouvain was a French composer and lutenist who served at the court of King Henry II of France. His compositions for lute and voice were highly regarded during his lifetime.
While the name Hance has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, it has continued to be used, particularly in certain regions of France and Belgium. Some other notable individuals with the name include Hance Herwyn, a 17th-century Flemish painter known for his still-life works, and Hance Dittert, a 19th-century Belgian architect who designed several notable buildings in Brussels.
People
Hance + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hance as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Hance: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hance?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 59 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hance 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 5,809,396 US residents.
Is Hance a common name?
We classify Hance as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 80 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hance most popular?
The single biggest year for Hance was 1991, when 9 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hance is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hance in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 184 people with the name Hance, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,443 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 Hance 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 Hance?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Hance leans strongly male. 176 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 9 female bearers (4.9%). 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 Hance?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hance is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Black (13.0%) and Hispanic (7.6%). 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 Hance most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hance in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.7% (132 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 Hance in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hance a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Hance 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 Hance still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hance 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 Hance 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 have the name Hance?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Hance, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.