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Cleatus vs Cleve

American parents have registered 4,529 Cleves since 1880, against 965 Cleatuses. Neither name reached five babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Cleatus against Cleve, 1880 to 2025 0 25 50 75 100 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Cleatus Cleve

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

Cleve has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1882 to 2013. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1931, when Cleatus had 29 and Cleve had 44.

Side by side

  Cleatus Cleve
Total US births 9654,529
Most in one year 3383
Babies in 2025 under 5under 5
Estimated living today 2601,700
Median age today 7164
Peak year 19241951
Best rank 1,355th boys766th boys
Rank in 2025 unrankedunranked
First recorded 19071882
Girls / boys 71 / 89423 / 4,506

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 Cleatuses alive today are over 71; half the Cleves are over 64. That is 7 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: Cleatus and Cleve.