Terrence
- Pronunciation
- [Te-rrence]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Tender
- Origin
- Irish
About the Name Terrence
Terrence is an English spelling variant of Terence, a name with Roman roots — it derives from the Latin family name Terentius, the gens Terentia being a plebeian family of ancient Rome. The etymological meaning most often proposed is "tender" or "smooth," from a root related to the Latin tener, though like many Roman family names the precise original meaning is uncertain. The name is associated with the Roman playwright Publius Terentius Afer — known simply as Terence — whose refined comedies were admired throughout classical antiquity and whose works survived the medieval period to influence Renaissance humanists across Europe. That classical association lends all Terence-family names a patina of literary and historical dignity.
In modern Irish and African American naming traditions, Terrence and Terence have both found active use. Ireland's adoption of the name partly reflects the overlap between the Latin Terentius and the native Irish name Toirdhealbhach, producing a cultural convergence that made Terence feel at home in Irish-Catholic communities. The Terrence spelling, with its double r, became particularly associated with American use, where it projected the same solid, classic masculinity as comparable names like Lawrence, Clarence, and Vince.
Terrence first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 at its peak rank of #488 and maintained a presence through 2018, sitting at #957 in its final tracked year. Over nearly two decades it accumulated approximately 7,116 top-1000 births. Recorded variants include Tarrance and Terrance, the latter having been the more frequently used spelling throughout much of the 20th century.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Terrence
US Popularity History (2000–2018)
Annual US births named Terrence by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 480 boys named Terrence (boy rank #488 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2018, ranked #957 for boys (217 US births). That's 469 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Terrence Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Terrence the strongest states are Mississippi, Louisiana, Maryland.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #592 | 16 |
| 2 | Louisiana | #652 | 51 |
| 3 | Maryland | #677 | 31 |
| 4 | South Carolina | #686 | 18 |
| 5 | Alabama | #686 | 28 |
| 6 | Ohio | #731 | 37 |
| 7 | Missouri | #742 | 22 |
| 8 | Tennessee | #755 | 51 |
| 9 | Michigan | #796 | 47 |
| 10 | Florida | #826 | 108 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Carolina | #1,058 | 24 |
| 2 | Illinois | #909 | 42 |
| 3 | Virginia | #886 | 21 |
| 4 | New Jersey | #884 | 21 |
| 5 | New York | #875 | 79 |
| 6 | Georgia | #838 | 81 |
| 7 | Florida | #826 | 108 |
| 8 | Michigan | #796 | 47 |
| 9 | Tennessee | #755 | 51 |
| 10 | Missouri | #742 | 22 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Terrence in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Terrence?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Terrence to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Terrence against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).