Humanverse

Torrance vs Torrence

American parents have registered 4,152 Torrances since 1880, against 3,395 Torrences. Torrance is still ahead, with 24 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Torrance against Torrence, 1880 to 2025 0 40 80 120 160 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Torrance Torrence

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 102 years in which either name was published, Torrance for 53 years and Torrence for 49 years. The lead changed hands 13 times.

5 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Torrance Torrence
Total US births 4,1523,395
Most in one year 12881
Babies in 2025 2418
Estimated living today 3,9003,000
Median age today 3537
Peak year 19731973
Best rank 710th boys885th boys
Rank in 2025 5,208th6,446th
First recorded 19401912
Girls / boys 562 / 3,590191 / 3,204

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Torrences alive today are over 37; half the Torrances are over 35. That is 2 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Torrance and Torrence.