Name Awesome

Spence

Boys' name

Spencer, through Spencer

Spence has been given to 1,114 babies in the U.S. since 1902. 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 1970, with 47 recorded.

Babies named Spence, 2024

1 in 669,000

Spence over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Spence: meaning, origin, and history

Spencer, through Spencer

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Spence means

Spence belongs to the name family reached through Spence → Spencer. Its meaning is “spencer”.

Origin, language, and formation

Spence is used in English.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Spencer.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Spence is pronounced /ˈspɛns/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,114 boys were recorded with the name Spence between 1902 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 47 in 1970; its best national rank was #1,219 in 1970.

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 Spence?

Spence had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 669,000
5 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 345,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
463,412 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Spence sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 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 463,412 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Spence. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Spences were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Spence was born before 1973 — so the typical Spence is around 52 today.

Median birth year
1973
About 52 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
16.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
19.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
895
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 16.8% of all recorded uses (187).

Is Spence 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 1970 (47)
Years since peak
55
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,219
1970

Spellings of Spence

Spence is not the most common spelling — Spencer is, with 96.8% against Spence's 0.87%.

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 Spence is used

Across 1910–2025, Spence was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 1,412,229 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Georgia1 in —
  3. 3Louisiana1 in —
  4. 4Tennessee1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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. Spence has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Spence around the world

Where Spence 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.

  • Canada
    1992–2006
    #2,447
    in 2006
  • South Australia
    2011–2011
    #784
    in 2011

Popularity data from Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Spence by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,219
1970
Peak year
1970
47 that year
First recorded
1902
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
1,114
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Spence

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

SpenserPrynceQuinceKadenceLorenceCadenceTarranceKaydenceRanceSperoLarenceClarnceLeonceKaidenceFranceBenceClanceLarnceBranceTorrenceTorranceTarenceCaydenceLawernce

Sibling names for Spence

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 Spence

Top names of 1970, Spence's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1970Boys' names starting with S