Chance
Chance was given to 711 boys in 2025, #442 among boys’ names; 56,010 Americans have been recorded with it since 1883 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 54,600 Americans named Chance and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 12 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Chance by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Chance mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Chance is “a male given name from English, an American pet form of Chauncey, in modern usage also associated with the word chance.”
[t͡ʃʰɛəns~t͡ʃʰeəns]
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Chance?
#442 among boys’ names, 2025
Chance fell from #250 in 2015 to #442 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.77 to 0.42 per 1,000.
2,293 babies in 1996, the peak
Chance peaked in 1996, when 2,293 babies were given it (2,243 boys, #154 among boys’ names). The 733 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 32% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 711 | #442 | 0.42 |
| 2024 | 762 | #418 | 0.44 |
| 2023 | 853 | #377 | 0.50 |
| 2022 | 985 | #340 | 0.56 |
| 2021 | 1,035 | #322 | 0.59 |
| 2020 | 1,202 | #279 | 0.70 |
| 2019 | 1,214 | #284 | 0.68 |
| 2018 | 1,321 | #270 | 0.73 |
| 2017 | 1,347 | #268 | 0.73 |
| 2016 | 1,347 | #272 | 0.71 |
Every recorded year (77)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,467 | #250 | 0.77 |
| 2014 | 1,534 | #244 | 0.80 |
| 2013 | 1,520 | #237 | 0.80 |
| 2012 | 1,513 | #238 | 0.80 |
| 2011 | 1,635 | #215 | 0.86 |
| 2010 | 1,440 | #244 | 0.75 |
| 2009 | 1,521 | #236 | 0.77 |
| 2008 | 1,403 | #251 | 0.69 |
| 2007 | 1,472 | #244 | 0.71 |
| 2006 | 1,269 | #274 | 0.62 |
| 2005 | 1,275 | #258 | 0.64 |
| 2004 | 1,321 | #250 | 0.67 |
| 2003 | 1,392 | #240 | 0.70 |
| 2002 | 1,450 | #233 | 0.75 |
| 2001 | 1,542 | #224 | 0.79 |
| 2000 | 1,694 | #212 | 0.86 |
| 1999 | 1,510 | #223 | 0.79 |
| 1998 | 1,542 | #209 | 0.81 |
| 1997 | 1,715 | #191 | 0.91 |
| 1996 | 2,243 | #154 | 1.2 |
| 1995 | 1,631 | #189 | 0.86 |
| 1994 | 1,347 | #216 | 0.70 |
| 1993 | 909 | #301 | 0.46 |
| 1992 | 773 | #329 | 0.39 |
| 1991 | 767 | #328 | 0.38 |
| 1990 | 794 | #316 | 0.39 |
| 1989 | 711 | #327 | 0.36 |
| 1988 | 622 | #340 | 0.32 |
| 1987 | 544 | #358 | 0.29 |
| 1986 | 508 | #368 | 0.28 |
| 1985 | 650 | #313 | 0.35 |
| 1984 | 879 | #250 | 0.49 |
| 1983 | 230 | #556 | 0.13 |
| 1982 | 186 | #636 | 0.10 |
| 1981 | 189 | #621 | 0.11 |
| 1980 | 207 | #605 | 0.12 |
| 1979 | 268 | #514 | 0.16 |
| 1978 | 296 | #469 | 0.18 |
| 1977 | 149 | #695 | 0.09 |
| 1976 | 140 | #702 | 0.09 |
| 1975 | 178 | #611 | 0.11 |
| 1974 | 184 | #587 | 0.12 |
| 1973 | 134 | #691 | 0.09 |
| 1972 | 167 | #610 | 0.10 |
| 1971 | 197 | #586 | 0.11 |
| 1970 | 127 | #729 | 0.07 |
| 1969 | 130 | #694 | 0.07 |
| 1968 | 63 | #912 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 106 | #720 | 0.06 |
| 1966 | 50 | #1,030 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 36 | #1,278 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 49 | #1,085 | 0.02 |
| 1963 | 52 | #1,052 | 0.03 |
| 1962 | 36 | #1,295 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 8 | #3,133 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 6 | #3,721 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 7 | #3,325 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 5 | #4,072 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #4,023 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #3,960 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 7 | #3,125 | under 0.01 |
| 1944 | 8 | #2,667 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,619 | under 0.01 |
| 1924 | 6 | #3,948 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 6 | #3,928 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 5 | #3,915 | 0.01 |
| 1883 | 5 | #918 | 0.05 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Chance a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 56,010 Americans recorded as Chance, 2% are girls and 98% boys. In 2025 it went to 22 girls and 711 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Chance: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Chance, and how old are they?
54,600 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 56,010 Americans ever recorded as Chance. The median Chance alive today is 22 years old; half are between 12 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 43,138 people named Chance (1,112 women and girls, 42,026 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 49,613 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 5 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 138 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,280 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 12,700 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 23,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 15,600 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Chance born?
The states with the most babies named Chance are Florida, Texas and North Carolina, with 25% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 62 | #315 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 57 | #558 | 1.1× |
| North Carolina | 50 | #248 | 1.0× |
| California | 38 | #710 | 0.5× |
| Georgia | 38 | #323 | 1.3× |
| New York | 31 | #516 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 28 | #389 | 0.9× |
| Louisiana | 26 | #199 | 2.0× |
| Virginia | 26 | #317 | 0.9× |
| Tennessee | 25 | #351 | 1.1× |
Where Chance is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Chance is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1910 it was given 2.4 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Chance with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 70,315 babies since 1880, Chance is the most given (80% of them). In 2025 it was given to 733 of their 763 babies (96%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Chance
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Chance and names like it
- Compare Chance and ChaunceyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sChance peaked in 1996.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Chance since 1910.
- The top names of 1996The year the most babies were named Chance.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Chance alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.