The baby name Lance started picking up steam in the U.S. in the late 1930s.
- 1939: 291 baby boys named Lance [rank: 322nd]
- 1938: 267 baby boys named Lance [rank: 339th]
- 1937: 70 baby boys named Lance [rank: 724th]
- 1936: 72 baby boys named Lance [rank: 704th]
- 1935: 41 baby boys named Lance
Why?
Because on February 24, 1936, American socialite and Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton and her Danish nobleman husband, Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Hardenberg-Reventlow, welcomed a baby boy and named him Lance.
What really gave the name a boost, though, was the couple’s divorce in 1938. Little Lance was mentioned in the news a lot that year.
The name remained moderately popular during the second half of the 20th century. It even reached top-100 status in 1970 and 1971.
By the 1990s, though, it was in decline.
Then Lance Armstrong (b. 1971) came along, winning the Tour de France seven years in a row (from 1999 to 2005).
- 2006: 1,001 baby boys named Lance [rank: 319th]
- 2005: 1,253 baby boys named Lance [rank: 264th]
- 2004: 1,161 baby boys named Lance [rank: 275th]
- 2003: 1,166 baby boys named Lance [rank: 269th]
- 2002: 1,232 baby boys named Lance [rank: 261st]
- 2001: 1,285 baby boys named Lance [rank: 256th]
- 2000: 1,221 baby boys named Lance [rank: 267th]
- 1999: 1,003 baby boys named Lance [rank: 287th]
- 1998: 880 baby boys named Lance [rank: 316th]
- 1997: 918 baby boys named Lance [rank: 297th]
Usage of the name Lance was buoyed temporarily by Armstrong, but as soon as his run was over, it started sinking again:
- 2011: 574 baby boys named Lance [rank: 467th]
- 2010: 602 baby boys named Lance [rank: 444th]
- 2009: 638 baby boys named Lance [rank: 438th]
- 2008: 749 baby boys named Lance [rank: 395th]
- 2007: 825 baby boys named Lance [rank: 372nd]
Now that the Lance Armstrong’s reputation has been ruined (thanks to a doping scandal that resulted in him being stripped of every Tour de France title), will the name Lance fall out of favor even faster?
Update, July 2014: In 2013, the name fell out of the top 500 for the first time since 1937.
Source: SSA
Images: Clipping from the Washington Times (12 Jun. 1936); Lance Armstrong AdH01 (public domain)