Explore the Family Name Terrance

The meaning of Terrance

Irish: adopted for Mac Toirdhealbhaigh (see Turley). Terence was sometimes used as an English equivalent of the Gaelic personal name Toirdhealbach. The name is rare in Britain and Ireland, and is now chiefly found in Glasgow, Scotland.

Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition, © Oxford University Press, 2022.

How common is the last name Terrance in the United States?

Based on the Decennial U.S. Census, the popularity of the surname Terrance experienced a slight decrease between 2000 and 2010. In 2000, Terrance was ranked 31,126 in popularity, but by 2010 it had slipped to rank 32,834, marking a change of -5.49%. The count of individuals with this surname also declined marginally from 705 in 2000 to 699 in 2010, which is a decrease of -0.85%. The proportion of people bearing the surname Terrance per 100k also fell by -7.69% during this decade.

	2000	2010	Change
Rank	#31,126	#32,834	-5.49%
Count	705	699	-0.85%
Proportion per 100k	0.26	0.24	-7.69%

Race and Ethnicity of people with the last name Terrance

With regards to the ethnic identity associated with the surname Terrance, the Decennial U.S. Census data reveals some shifts between 2000 and 2010. Individuals identifying as Black represented the largest portion of those with the Terrance surname, increasing from 50.78% in 2000 to 53.22% in 2010. The second most common ethnicity was American Indian and Alaskan Native, growing from 20.71% to 22.32%. However, the percentage of Whites with this surname decreased significantly, dropping from 23.12% to 18.74%. Data for Asian/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics were either nonexistent or suppressed for privacy (S). The category of Two or more races saw a notable increase, moving from 2.98% to 3.43%.

	2000	2010	Change
Black	50.78%	53.22%	4.81%
American Indian and Alaskan Native	20.71%	22.32%	7.77%
White	23.12%	18.74%	-18.94%
Two or More Races	2.98%	3.43%	15.1%
Asian/Pacific Islander	0%	0%	0%
Hispanic	2.41%	0%	0%