Chance is a

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...

and a

surname In some cultures, a surname, family name, or last name is the portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family, tribe or community. Practices vary by culture. The family name may be placed at either the start of a person's full name ...

. The given name is of

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...

origin, meaning "good fortune". There are several variants. The surname is of

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...

origin, from , also

''chea(u)nce'' (meaning "fortune", "luck"). The oldest public record of the surname dates to 1310 in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. People with the name Chance include:

Given name

Chance Adams Chance Adams (born August 10, 1994) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals. Career Adams attended Chaparral High School in ...

(born 1994), American baseball player *

Chance Bateman Chance Bateman (born 21 June 1981) is an Australian rules football coach and former player who played for the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League. Bateman was Hawthorn's first indigenous player to reach 100 games, first Ab ...

(born 1981), Australian rules footballer *

Chance the Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Bennett released his debut mixtape '' 10 Day'' in 2012. He ...

(born 1993), American rapper, born Bennett *

Chance Browne Robert "Chance" Browne (born June 17, 1948) is an American comic strip artist and cartoonist, painter, and musician. He was born in New York City. After his father Dik Browne died in 1989, Browne took over drawing the family comic strip ''Hi and ...

(born 1948), American cartoonist * Chance Campbell (born 1999), American football player * Chance Carter (born 2001), Canadian soccer player *

Chance Fry Chance Fry (born June 29, 1964, in Bellevue, Washington) is a retired U.S. soccer forward who began his career straight out of high school with the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League. With the collapse of the NASL, he moved to in ...

(born 1964), American soccer player * Chance Mock (born 1981), American football player *

Chance Myers Chance Russell Myers (born December 7, 1987, in Thousand Oaks, California) is an American former association football, soccer player. Career College and amateur Myers attended Thousand Oaks High School, and played college soccer at UCLA from 20 ...

(born 1987), American soccer player *

Chance Perdomo Chance Perdomo is an American-born English actor. He appeared in ''Killed by My Debt'' (2018) and played Ambrose Spellman on the Netflix series ''Chilling Adventures of Sabrina''. Early life and education Perdomo was born in Los Angeles, Califor ...

, American-born English actor *

Chance Phelps Chance Russell Phelps (July 14, 1984 – April 9, 2004) was a private first class – posthumously promoted to lance corporal – in the United States Marine Corps. He served with 2nd Platoon, Battery L, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regim ...

(1984–2004), United States Marine *

Chance Ruffin Chance Kraig Ruffin (born September 8, 1988) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball. Professional career Detroit Tigers Ruffin was drafted by the Detroi ...

(born 1988), American baseball player * Chance Sanford (born 1972), American baseball player * Chance Sisco (born 1995), American baseball player *

Chance Thomas Chance Thomas is an American composer, author, and entrepreneur. As a composer, he creates original music for animation, video games, movies, television, and virtual reality. His music has received critical acclaim and commercial success, includin ...

, American music composer *

Chance M. Vought Chauncey Milton "Chance" Vought (February 26, 1890 in Long Island, New York – July 25, 1930) was an American aviation pioneer and engineer, who was the co-founder of the Vought, Lewis and Vought Corporation with Birdseye Lewis. Born on Long Isl ...

(1890–1930), American businessman and aerospace engineer *

Chance Warmack Chance Warmack (born September 14, 1991) is an American football guard who is a free agent. He was drafted by the Tennessee Titans tenth overall in the 2013 NFL Draft. He played college football at Alabama, and earned All-American honors. Hig ...

(born 1991), American football player *

Chance Waters Chance Dylan Waters (previously known as Phatchance), is an ex independent Australian hip hop artist and record producer. As Phatchance, Waters was a founder of the group, Natural Causes, in 2003 which issued an album, ''The Incidental Noise De ...

(born 1987), Australian rapper, songwriter, record producer * Thomas Chance Morris, a/k/a

Sodapoppin Thomas Chance Morris (born February 15, 1994), better known as Sodapoppin, is an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber. He has one of the largest followings on Twitch, with over 8.7 million followers and over 398.3 million views as of August 15, ...

(born 1994), Twitch-streamer

Surname

Beth Chance Beth L. Chance (born 1968) is an American statistics educator. She is a professor of statistics at the California Polytechnic State University. Education and career Chance is originally from San Diego, California. She graduated from Harvey Mud ...

(born 1968), American statistician *

Bob Chance Robert Chance (September 10, 1940 – October 3, 2013) was a first baseman and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for the Cleveland Indians, Washington Senators and California Angels in part of six seasons spanning 1963 through 1 ...

(1940–2013), American baseball player *

Britton Chance Britton "Brit" Chance (July 24, 1913 – November 16, 2010) was an American biochemist, biophysicist, scholar, and inventor whose work helped develop spectroscopy as a way to diagnose medical problems. He was "a world leader in transforming t ...

(1913–2010), American professor and Olympic gold medalist *

Dean Chance Wilmer Dean Chance (June 1, 1941 – October 11, 2015) was an American professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher,https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/chancde01.shtml Dean Chance Page at Baseball-Reference.com he played in 11 Maj ...

(1941-2015), American baseball pitcher *

Edgar Chance Edgar Percival Chance (1881–1955) was a British businessman, ornithologist and oologist who amassed a collection of 25,000 birds' eggs. He is noted for his pioneering studies on the parasitic breeding behaviour of the common cuckoo (''Cuculus ...

(1881–1955), industrialist, ornithologist *

Frank Chance Frank Leroy Chance (September 9, 1877 – September 15, 1924) was an American professional baseball player. A first baseman, Chance played in Major League Baseball for the Chicago Cubs (initially named the "Orphans") and New York Yankees from 18 ...

(1877–1924), American baseball player and manager * Fred Chance, American illustrator *

Greyson Chance Greyson Michael Chance (born August 16, 1997) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He rose to national attention in 2010 with his performance of Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" at a grade school music festival which went viral on YouTube, gai ...

(born 1997), American singer * Hugh Chance (1911–1998), American religious person *

James Chance James Chance, also known as James White (born James Siegfried, April 20, 1953), is an American saxophonist, keyboard player, and singer. A key figure in no wave, Chance has been playing a combination of improvisational jazz-like music and pun ...

(born 1953), American new wave musician * Sir

James Timmins Chance Sir James Timmins Chance, 1st Baronet (22 March 1814 – 6 January 1902''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Chance, James Timmins, first baronet'', by Charles Welch), was an English industrialist, philanthropist, director of the London ...

(1814–1902), industrialist and baronet * Jean C. Chance, American journalism professor *

John Barnes Chance John Barnes Chance (November 20, 1932 – August 16, 1972) was an American composer. Chance studied composition with Clifton Williams at the University of Texas, Austin, and is best known for his concert band works, which include ''Variations ...

(1932–1972), American composer *

Kenneth Chance Kenneth Macomb Chance (1879–1969) was an English industrialist and founder of British Industrial Plastics, who served as Sheriff of Warwickshire. Chance was born on 16 July 1879, at Edgbaston, Birmingham (then in Warwickshire), the son of Alex ...

(1879-1969), industrialist *

Kim Chance Kimberley Maurice "Kim" Chance (16 November 1946 – 22 February 2017) was an Australian farmer and politician who served as a Labor Party member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia from 1992 to 2009, representing Agricultural Regi ...

, Australian politician *

Matthew Chance Matthew Gerald Chance (born March 14, 1970) is a British journalist working for CNN as one of the network's Senior International Correspondents. Career He is based in Moscow. Chance was one of the journalists held by forces of Colonel Gadd ...

, British television journalist *

Michael Chance Michael Chance CBE (born in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom 7 March 1955) is an English countertenor and the founder and Artistic Director of The Grange Festival. Chance was born in Penn, Buckinghamshire, into a musical family. After growing u ...

(born 1955), English countertenor * Molly Chance, American television producer and actress *

Noel Chance Noel Chance (born 18 December 1951) is a retired Irish racehorse trainer who was based at Upper Lambourn, Berkshire. Chance retired from training in 2013 after a career which began in Ireland and lasted for 38 years. He trained two winners of th ...

, British racehorse trainer * Stephen Chance (disambiguation), multiple people * The

Chance Brothers Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands (formerly in Staffordshire), in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology. The Chance fami ...

, English glass-makers

Fictional characters

In film

* Chance the Gardener, aka Chauncey Gardiner, in the novel and film ''Being There'' * Chance, an American Bulldog in the movies '' Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey'' and '' Homeward Bound 2'' * Agent Nina Chance, Secret Service agent in the 1997 film ''

Murder at 1600 ''Murder at 1600'' is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Dwight Little and starring Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane. Plot In a restroom in the White House, a janitor finds secretary Carla Town dead. Metropolitan Police homicide detect ...

'', played by Diane Lane * Chance Boudreaux, main character of the film ''

Hard Target ''Hard Target'' is a 1993 American action film directed by Hong Kong film director John Woo in his U.S. debut. The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chance Boudreaux, an out-of-work homeless Cajun merchant seaman and former United States Forc ...

'', played by Jean-Claude Van Damme * Richard Chance, United States Secret Service agent with the Treasury Department, main character in 1985 film ''To Live and Die in L.A.'' (film) * Chance Wayne, main character from the Tennessee Williams play ''

Sweet Bird of Youth ''Sweet Bird of Youth'' is a 1959 play by Tennessee Williams which tells the story of a gigolo and drifter, Chance Wayne, who returns to his home town as the companion of a faded movie star, Alexandra del Lago (travelling incognito as Princess ...

'', portrayed by Paul Newman in the 1962 film adaption * John T. Chance, in the 1959 film ''Rio Bravo'' (film) * Chance Buckman, main character in the 1968 film

Hellfighters (film) ''Hellfighters'' is a 1968 American adventure film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring John Wayne, Katharine Ross and Jim Hutton. The movie depicts about a group of oil well firefighters, based loosely on the life of Red Adair. Adair, "Bo ...

, played by John Wayne.

In other media

Jack T. Chance Jack T. Chance is a fictional character featured in comic books published by DC Comics. He is a Green Lantern from the world of Garnet—also known as Hellhole. Physically, he is a tall, blue-skinned humanoid. Other distinguishing features include ...

, DC Comics character * Christopher Chance, another DC Comics character' who uses the alias

Human Target The Human Target is the name of two fictional character (arts), characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. The first is Fred Venable, while the second is private investigator and bodyguard Christopher Chance who assumes the identit ...

* Chance "T-Bone" Furlong, a protagonist in the animated series '' SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron'' *

Chance Chancellor Chance Chancellor is a fictional character from ''The Young and the Restless'', an American soap opera on the CBS network. Introduced as the son of Nina Webster and Phillip Chancellor III, he was portrayed by various child actors from 1988 to 20 ...

, in the soap opera ''The Young and the Restless''

References

{{given name, type=both English masculine given names