boy's name
Chance
CHANSS
- Origin English
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 1
- Letters 6
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 58,791
the United States
#442
2025 births
Chance means a falling, and the falling was dice — the Old French cheance describes how they land, from the Latin cadere, to fall, which also gives cadence, decay and accident. As a given name it is American and modern.
- Chance is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1996, when 2,293 babies were given the name.
- Its usage has held steady over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 4,523 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1883.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Chance over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1880s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1880s | 5 |
| 1910s | 5 |
| 1920s | 12 |
| 1940s | 20 |
| 1950s | 22 |
| 1960s | 542 |
| 1970s | 1,929 |
| 1980s | 4,850 |
| 1990s | 13,593 |
| 2000s | 14,686 |
| 2010s | 14,643 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 5,703 |
What Chance means
Chance means a falling, and by extension how something turns out. The Old French named the way dice landed before it named luck in the abstract.
Where Chance comes from
Chance is the Old French cheance, a falling or a happening, from the Latin cadere, to fall. The image is dice coming to rest, and the same root runs through a surprising range of English: cadence is how a phrase falls, a cascade is falling water, decay is falling away, an accident is what falls out, and a chute is a fall. As a given name it is American and modern, taken up as a word name.
Chance in use
Chance peaked in the United States in 1996, when 2,293 babies were registered, and our data marks it stable rather than falling. It now ranks 442nd in the United States on 733 births and 1886th in England and Wales on 14, across 58,791 lifetime births in three of the seven markets we track. Our records carry it from 1883, though almost all volume falls after 1980.
How popular is Chance?
In 2025, Chance was given to 733 babies in the United States, ranking #442 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Chance is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Chance
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Chance also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Chance over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Chance in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Chance
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Chance — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Chance
What does the name Chance mean?
A falling — the Old French cheance, from the Latin cadere, to fall.
Why does falling mean luck?
The image is dice coming to rest. How they fall is how things turn out.
Which words share that root?
Cadence, cascade, decay, accident and chute all come from cadere.
How popular is Chance?
442nd in the United States, and stable rather than falling in our data.
Is Chance a girl's or a boy's name?
Chance is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Chance?
Chance has 1 syllable.
Is Chance a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Chance currently ranks #442 in the United States. Its usage has held steady over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.