Humanverse

Claire vs Claudene

American parents have registered 214,123 Claires since 1880, against 671 Claudenes. Claire is still ahead, with 3,487 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Claire against Claudene, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Claire Claudene

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

Claire has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1972, when Claire had 274 and Claudene had 8.

Side by side

  Claire Claudene
Total US births 214,123671
Most in one year 5,21622
Babies in 2025 3,487under 5
Estimated living today 169,000270
Median age today 1975
Peak year 20161934
Best rank 40th girls1,603rd girls
Rank in 2025 68thunranked
First recorded 18801913
Girls / boys 211,919 / 2,204671 / 0

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 Claudenes alive today are over 75; half the Claires are over 19. That is 56 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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