Claire

163,948 people in America carry this name — ranked #340 of 923.

Most Americans carrying it were born this century.

Say it KLEHR

1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

K L EH1 R — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 163,948 2020 Census
  • Rank #340 Common

What Claire means and where it comes from

Latin in origin, reading literally as “famous”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

How often Claire has been given

196,952 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 2016, with 5,211 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 00 10s 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 2010s. It has been given more often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names that fit Claire

One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.

Better avoided

  • Claire Elizabeth — runs together
  • Claire Emily — runs together
  • Claire Rebecca — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

On the way up

Claire is given more often now than it was a generation ago. Most names move the other way.

Is Claire a boy's or a girl's name?

0.4% men
163,298 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

Full names people carry

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Names built the same way as Claire

Ends on the same sound

Same rhythm — 1 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

This name in other languages

  • Lara Finn
  • Klara Slav
  • Clare English
  • Clara Eng.|Span
  • Clair French
  • Sklear Breton
  • Clarus
  • Chiara Italian
  • Skleara Breton
  • Clarina English

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

The states where Claire is most common

In Minnesota the name is given 1.8 times as often as it is across the country.

  • Minnesota ×1.8
  • Utah ×1.7
  • the District of Columbia ×1.6
  • Idaho ×1.5
  • Nebraska ×1.5

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Try it Full-Name Estimator

Add a surname and see how many Americans carry the two together.

Open Full-Name Estimator on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Latin origin