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Clide vs Clive

American parents have registered 3,336 Clives since 1880, against 755 Clides. Clive is still ahead, with 57 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Clide Clive

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 132 years in which either name was published, Clive for 115 years and Clide for 17 years. The lead changed hands 19 times.

16 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Clide Clive
Total US births 7553,336
Most in one year 3585
Babies in 2025 under 557
Estimated living today 802,200
Median age today 7516
Peak year 19192016
Best rank 1,264th boys1,788th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,390th
First recorded 18831885
Girls / boys 37 / 7180 / 3,336

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 Clides alive today are over 75; half the Clives are over 16. That is 59 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: Clide and Clive.