Head to head · Girls' names
Alice vs Clara
#65 vs #63 in 2025
Clara is a whisker ahead (#63 vs #65 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Clara is back after a long quiet spell, Alice is holding its place on the charts.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Clara leads 4 measures of 6; Alice leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Alice #11, Clara #10 — Clara higher
- 1890s: Alice #14, Clara #12 — Clara higher
- 1900s: Alice #11, Clara #24 — Alice higher
- 1910s: Alice #12, Clara #38 — Alice higher
- 1920s: Alice #16, Clara #55 — Alice higher
- 1930s: Alice #25, Clara #81 — Alice higher
- 1940s: Alice #42, Clara #137 — Alice higher
- 1950s: Alice #86, Clara #230 — Alice higher
- 1960s: Alice #150, Clara #378 — Alice higher
- 1970s: Alice #241, Clara #539 — Alice higher
- 1980s: Alice #328, Clara #546 — Alice higher
- 1990s: Alice #404, Clara #422 — Alice higher
- 2000s: Alice #387, Clara #266 — Clara higher
- 2010s: Alice #102, Clara #118 — Alice higher
- 2020s: Alice #67, Clara #92 — Alice higher
Alice stood higher in 12 of 15 decades; Alice has held the lead since the 2010s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Alice | Clara |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #11 | #10 |
| 1890s | #14 | #12 |
| 1900s | #11 | #24 |
| 1910s | #12 | #38 |
| 1920s | #16 | #55 |
| 1930s | #25 | #81 |
| 1940s | #42 | #137 |
| 1950s | #86 | #230 |
| 1960s | #150 | #378 |
| 1970s | #241 | #539 |
| 1980s | #328 | #546 |
| 1990s | #404 | #422 |
| 2000s | #387 | #266 |
| 2010s | #102 | #118 |
| 2020s | #67 | #92 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Alice
- France#10
- Canada#12
- England & Wales#49
- Scotland#52
Clara
- Canada#20
- Scotland#82
- England & Wales#84
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Alice
of a noble kind
Both Germanic elements are well attested and the chain of forms from the compound to the modern name is documented at every stage. What is gone is any way of seeing that from the name as it now stands.
Adalheidis → Adelais → Aalis → Alice
How it traveled
One woman carrying it changed what a short story could be asked to do. She wrote almost nothing but stories across a working life of half a century, set nearly all of them in small towns in southwestern Ontario, and built them so that a paragraph could contain forty years and a marriage could turn on a sentence somebody almost said.
Clara
clear, bright
The Latin adjective means clear in every sense the English word has: transparent, audible, obvious, famous. It gives English clarify, declare, clarion and clear itself. As a name it spread across Catholic Europe with a thirteenth-century saint and became enormous in nineteenth-century America, and it is now back in the top hundred after three generations away.
a Latin adjective meaning clear or bright → a thirteenth-century saint spreads the name across Europe → an enormous American wave at the end of the nineteenth century → three generations out of use → back in the top hundred in this century
How it traveled
She wrote in her diary that she had once believed she had creative gift, but had given up the idea: a woman must not wish to compose, and why should she expect to be the one to do it. She was nineteen when she wrote it.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Alice
AL-iss
Two syllables with the stress at the front. French says it in two as well, with the weight at the back, which English speakers rarely attempt.
- Ali — The front alone; short, current and completely unisex.
- Elsie — Reached by sound from the ending; a standing name in its own right.
- Allie — An affectionate ending; warm and firmly informal.
Clara
KLAIR-uh
Two syllables, stress at the front. The first vowel divides the English-speaking world — KLAR-uh in Britain and Ireland, KLAIR-uh in most of America — and both are entirely correct.
- Clarrie — The old British short form, warm and currently unfashionable enough to be interesting.
- Lala — Built from the sound; a family form rather than a public one.
Who has carried each name
Alice
Alice Munro (b. 1931) — Nobel laureate, master of the short story
Alice Walker (b. 1944) — The Color Purple author, first Black woman to win the fiction Pulitzer
Alice Paul (b. 1885) — Suffragist who wrote the Equal Rights Amendment
Clara
Clara Barton (b. 1821) — Founded the American Red Cross
Clara Schumann (b. 1819) — Piano virtuoso who premiered Brahms's music
Clara Bow (b. 1905) — The original "It girl" of silent film
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Alice if you want…
- a name holding steadyAlice is holding its place on the charts
- a name that charts abroad tooAlice is on the national lists of France, Canada, England & Wales and Scotland
Choose Clara if you want…
- a name on the way upup 40 places on the charts in five years
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Alice
Strengths
- It is recognized across Europe with almost no change of spelling.
- It has been in continuous use since the medieval period without interruption.
- The spelling is short, unambiguous and never needs repeating.
To consider
- It is currently fashionable again, so a child may not be the only one.
- The meaning is entirely invisible without explanation.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
Clara
Strengths
- It works without alteration in English, Spanish, German, Italian and Scandinavian.
- The meaning is clear, positive and easy to explain to a child.
- It is old enough to be beyond fashion and current enough not to sound like a costume.
To consider
- The first vowel is said two ways and she will hear both.
- It is rising fast, so it will be commoner among her contemporaries than in the record.
- Clara, Claire and Clare are close enough that all three will be substituted.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Alice and Clara in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Alice and Clara?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- Transatlantic hits: loved on both sides of the ocean
- America's top 100 names right now
- The top-10 club: every name that made it
- Victorian names ready for a second century
- all guides
Every list here names both Alice and Clara — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Alice or Clara — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Alice or Clara?
- Clara, in 2025: Clara ranked #63 with 3,601 babies; Alice ranked #65 with 3,547 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Alice or Clara?
- Clara. Over the last five years Alice moved up 11 places; Clara moved up 40 places.
- Which is the older name, Alice or Clara?
- The US record cannot say: both were already in use when it began in 1880.
- How many people are named Alice and Clara?
- About 220,000 people named Alice are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 108,000 people named Clara are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Alices or Claras in the classroom?
- Alice will almost certainly be the only one in school. Clara will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Alice, Clara and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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