MEANING & HISTORY
What does Terence mean?
Terence comes from Latin Terentius, a Roman family name of uncertain ultimate origin. The Roman playwright and later Christian saints helped transmit it.
Smooth or tender are proposed popular interpretations rather than securely recovered roots. In Ireland Terence also represented a separate Gaelic name, so the Latin route does not describe every family context.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
CebuanoEtymology & source
From English Terrence, from Latin.
a male given name from English
Wiktionary: Terence (Cebuano) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
From Latin Terentius, a Roman family name of obscure origin, borne by a Roman playwright and by early Christian saints. In Ireland, it has been used to represent Turlough.
A male given name from Latin, popular in the U.K. in the mid-twentieth century.
Wiktionary: Terence (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Terence
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Terence Baylon
Filipino actor
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Wikidata
1
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Terence Baylon
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Terence in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Terence
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Terrence♂Variant of Terence, from Terentius
- Clarence♂From the ducal title associated with Clare
- Florence♀Flourishing or flowering
- Laurence·From Laurentius, associated with Laurentum and laurel
- Lawrence♂From Laurentum, an ancient Italian town
- Prince♂Prince; a ruler or royal son
- Teresa♀From the early Christian name Therasia
- Lance♂From Lanzo and the Germanic land element
What rhymes with Terence?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Explore Terence further
Follow the sources
- Wikidata given-name item Q5556418 — Terence (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Terence Baylon (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q5556418 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Terence (Cebuano) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Terence (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Terence (opens in a new tab)
Personal-name formation and etymological relationships; imported dictionary account consulted.