Clementine vs Cletus
American parents have registered 13,676 Clementines since 1880, against 7,709 Cletuses. Clementine is still ahead, with 676 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Clementine Cletus
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
Of the 146 years in which either name was published, Clementine for 83 years and Cletus for 63 years. The lead changed hands 16 times.
- 1880–1912 Clementine ahead
- 1915–1938 Cletus ahead
- 1947–1959 Clementine ahead
- 1960–1989 Cletus ahead
- 1998–2025 Clementine ahead
12 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Clementine | Cletus | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 13,676 | 7,709 |
| Most in one year | 676 | 243 |
| Babies in 2025 | 676 | 9 |
| Estimated living today | 9,000 | 2,100 |
| Median age today | 8 | 65 |
| Peak year | 2025 | 1922 |
| Best rank | 456th girls | 391st boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 456th | 8,243rd |
| First recorded | 1880 | 1886 |
| Girls / boys | 13,676 / 0 | 272 / 7,437 |
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 Cletuses alive today are over 65; half the Clementines are over 8. That is 57 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Clementine North Carolina (2.6×), Oregon (2.2×), Washington (2.1×)
- Cletus Iowa (8.2×), Missouri (4.7×), Wisconsin (3.7×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Clementine and Cletus.