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Clione vs Clive

American parents have registered 3,336 Clives since 1880, against 16 Cliones. Clive is still ahead, with 57 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Clione 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

Clive has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1885 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1938, when Clione had 16 and Clive had 27.

Side by side

  Clione Clive
Total US births 163,336
Most in one year 1685
Babies in 2025 under 557
Estimated living today 62,200
Median age today 8716
Peak year 19382016
Best rank 2,021st girls1,788th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,390th
First recorded 19381885
Girls / boys 16 / 00 / 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 Cliones alive today are over 87; half the Clives are over 16. That is 71 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: Clione and Clive.