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The surname Vance

An English place surname, carried by 47,324 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈvæns/ 1 syllable Soundex V520 Also a first name

Vance: #737 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#10,001Dubon Vance #737, 47,324 people Vance: #737 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Vance #737, 47,324 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Vance is more common than 99.5% of them.

Origin

English origin

From a Southern English dialectal form of Old English fenn (“marsh, bog”).

Vance is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 47,324 people named Vance in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 6,524 Americans. That is up 3.4% since 2000, when the Census counted 45,763.

#737
rank among US surnames
47,324
people in 2010
16
per 100,000 Americans
+3.4%
change since 2000 (was #686)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#728Henson48,0136,430
#729O'Neal47,9796,435
#730Mosley47,9636,437
#731McClure47,7426,467
#732Beasley47,6936,474
#733Stephenson47,6416,481
#734Snow47,5286,496

Who is named Vance

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

82% of people named Vance identified as white (not Hispanic), 13% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.4% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 82%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 13%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.4%
  • Two or more races 1.9%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.7%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Vances

9 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Jack Vance
    American mystery and speculative fiction writer (1916–2013)
  • Chris Vance
    British actor, born 1971
  • Courtney B. Vance
    American actor, born 1960
  • Vivian Vance
    American actress (1909–1979)
  • William Vance
    Belgian comics artist (1935-2018)
  • Dazzy Vance
    American baseball player (1891–1961)
  • Marilyn Vance
    American film director, born 2000
  • Danitra Vance
    American comedian and actress (1954–1994)
  • Ashlee Vance
    American journalist, born 1977

Notable Vances come mostly from the United States (7), the United Kingdom (1) and Belgium (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Vance

Vance has the Soundex code V520, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code V520.

Other English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Vance come from?
From a Southern English dialectal form of Old English fenn (“marsh, bog”).
How common is the surname Vance?
47,324 people in the United States had the surname Vance in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 6,524 Americans. It ranked 737th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Vance?
In the 2010 Census, 82% of people named Vance identified as white (not Hispanic), and 13% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Vance?
Jack Vance, American mystery and speculative fiction writer (1916–2013), followed by Chris Vance.
Where is the surname Vance most common?
Wikidata records people named Vance in the United States, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
How do you pronounce Vance?
Vance is /ˈvæns/, one syllable.
What type of surname is Vance?
Vance is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Vance getting more or less common?
More common. 45,763 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 47,324 in 2010, up 3.4%.
Is Vance also a first name?
Yes. Vance is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.