Lance
A masculine name of Celtic origin meaning "broad meadow" or "land".
Name Census estimates that about 94,601 living Americans carry the first name Lance. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Lance today is around 45 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Lance births was 1970 (4,173 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Lance. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Lance with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Lance is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 345 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
95K
~ 1 in 3,623 Americans
Peak year
1970
4,173 babies that year
Average age
45
years old
2024 SSA rank
#841
Tracked since 1899
Census
Lance in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 86,544 people with the first name Lance, which placed it at #612 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
#612
National first-name rank
People counted
87K
86,544 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
28.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Lance
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lance is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Lance 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 Lance at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.0% · 65,776
- Black or African American10.5% · 9,127
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 3,728
- Two or more races4.1% · 3,514
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 3,113
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 1,286
Gender
Gender distribution for Lance
Out of the 105,908 babies given the name Lance since 1880, 99.7% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Lance as a male name
- Ranked #841 in 2024
- 290 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (4,160 births)
Lance as a female name
- Ranked #17,615 in 2004
- 5 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1979 (22 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lance appears almost entirely male. Of the 86,540 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Lance: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Lance from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 21,919 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Lance 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 Lance during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Lances live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Lance, while Delaware, Rhode Island, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,012 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Lance
The name Lance has its origins in the Late Latin word "lancea", meaning "spear" or "lance". This word was derived from the Celtic "landskia", also referring to a type of spear or lance used as a weapon in ancient times.
The name first emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 11th or 12th century, and was commonly used in countries such as France, England, and Italy. It gained popularity as a given name due to its association with the iconic weapon, which was widely used by knights and soldiers during that period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Lance can be found in the 12th-century epic poem "Chanson de Roland", which tells the story of the legendary knight Roland and his comrades during the reign of Charlemagne. In this work, the name is mentioned in reference to a character named Lance, suggesting its use as a personal name at that time.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Lance. One of the most famous was Lance Lancelot, a legendary knight of the Round Table in Arthurian mythology, renowned for his bravery and skill in combat. Another prominent figure was Lance Armstrong, the American cyclist who won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 to 2005, though his victories were later stripped due to doping allegations.
Other notable individuals with the name Lance include Lance Corporal, a rank in the military, particularly in the British Army; Lance Henriksen, an American actor known for his roles in films such as "Aliens" and "The Terminator" (born 1940); and Lance Reddick, an American actor best known for his role as Cedric Daniels in the HBO series "The Wire" (born 1962).
Additionally, the name Lance has been mentioned in various literary works, including Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", where the character Hamlet refers to a "lancer" or "lanced" wound. This further reinforces the name's connection to the ancient weapon and its historical significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Lance
People
Lance + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Lance as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Lance: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Lance?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 94,601 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Lance 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 3,623 US residents.
Is Lance a common name?
We classify Lance as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 105,908 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Lance most popular?
The single biggest year for Lance was 1970, when 4,173 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Lance is about 45 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Lance in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 86,544 people with the name Lance, or 28.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #612 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 Lance 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 Lance?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Lance appears almost entirely male. Of the 86,540 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Lance?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Lance is White at 76.0%. The next largest groups are Black (10.5%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Lance most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Lance in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.0% (65,776 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 Lance in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Lance a male name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Lance 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 Lance still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Lance 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 Lance 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 named Lance?
Find out how many people share the name Lance on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.