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Nance

Girls' name

Grace, gracious, graced with child, through Nancy

Nance has been given to 771 babies in the U.S. since 1913. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1947, with 32 recorded.

Babies named Nance, 1973

1 in 603,000

Nance over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
01020304018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Nance: meaning, origin, and history

Grace, gracious, graced with child, through Nancy

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Nance means

Nance belongs to the name family reached through Nance → Nancy → Ann. Its meaning is “grace, gracious, graced with child”.

Origin, language, and formation

Nance is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Nancy and Ann.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 761 girls were recorded with the name Nance between 1913 and 1973. Its highest annual count was 32 in 1947; its best national rank was #1,617 in 1932.

In the United States, 10 boys were recorded with the name Nance between 1932 and 1936. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1932; its best national rank was #3,908 in 1936.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Nance?

Nance had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1973, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1973
1 in 603,000
5 of 3,016,706 births
Among girls only
1 in 292,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 1973
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
418,205 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Nance sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1973 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 418,205 children born in 1973 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Nance. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Nances were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Nance was born before 1947 — so the typical Nance is around 78 today.

Median birth year
1947
About 78 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
29.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
45.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
323
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 29.4% of all recorded uses (224).

Is Nance rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1947 (32)
Years since peak
78
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
24.1% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,617
1932

Spellings of Nance

Nance is not the most common spelling — Nancy is, with 43.4% against Nance's 0.03%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Nance is used

Across 1910–2025, Nance was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 934,896 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Michigan1 in —
  3. 3Pennsylvania1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Nance has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Nance around the world

Where Nance ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • South Australia
    1949–1960
    #617
    in 1960

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Nance by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,617
1932
Peak year
1947
32 that year
First recorded
1913
Last recorded
1973
All-time count
761
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#3,908
1936
Peak year
1932
5 that year
First recorded
1932
Last recorded
1936
All-time count
10
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Nance

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

NandiNaniNaneaNanieNanamiNandiniNanaNanceyNancyeNannaNanceeChanceNansiCadanceKadynceLanceNanciNanciePrinceNanayaaFranceNandaEssynceKaedence

Sibling names for Nance

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Nance

Top names of 1947, Nance's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1932Girls' names starting with N