Cletus
Cletus is a boy's name that peaked in 1922, when it was the 391st most popular in the United States. In 2025 it ranked 8,243rd. About 2,100 Cletuses are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 65.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Cletus boys named Cletus
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 7,709
- Estimated living today
- 2,100
- Median age today
- 65
- Peak year
- 1922
- Best rank
- 391st
- Rank in 2025
- 8,243rd
- First recorded
- 1886
- Girls / boys
- 272 / 7,437
How old the living Cletuses are
born that year still alive today
Of the 7,709 babies given the name since 1886, about 2,100 are alive — 28 in every hundred. Roughly 110 of them are children and 1,100 are 65 or over. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1960 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
Origin Ancient Greek
Borrowed from Latin Clētus, short form of the papal name Anaclētus, from Ancient Greek ἀνάκλητος (“invoked”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Where Cletus is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Cletus is most concentrated in Iowa (8.2×), Missouri (4.7×), Wisconsin (3.7×), Indiana (3.7×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1922
The most popular boys’ names the year Cletus peaked:
Related names
Cletus against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.