Head to head · Girls' names
Cassidy vs Clover
#541 vs #517 in 2025
Clover is a whisker ahead (#517 vs #541 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Clover is climbing the charts fast, Cassidy is stepping back from its peak.
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, Clover leads 4 measures of 6; Cassidy leads 2.
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
- 1890s: Cassidy —, Clover #1555 — Clover higher
- 1900s: Cassidy —, Clover #1555 — Clover higher
- 1910s: Cassidy —, Clover #1874 — Clover higher
- 1920s: Cassidy —, Clover #2616 — Clover higher
- 1930s: Cassidy —, Clover #3190 — Clover higher
- 1940s: Cassidy —, Clover #3266 — Clover higher
- 1950s: Cassidy —, Clover #3465 — Clover higher
- 1960s: Cassidy #7471, Clover #5373 — Clover higher
- 1970s: Cassidy #2250, Clover #3497 — Cassidy higher
- 1980s: Cassidy #638, Clover #6390 — Cassidy higher
- 1990s: Cassidy #218, Clover #7960 — Cassidy higher
- 2000s: Cassidy #173, Clover #3981 — Cassidy higher
- 2010s: Cassidy #291, Clover #1453 — Cassidy higher
- 2020s: Cassidy #480, Clover #749 — Cassidy higher
Clover stood higher in 8 of 14 decades; Cassidy has held the lead since the 1970s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Cassidy | Clover |
|---|---|---|
| 1890s | — | #1555 |
| 1900s | — | #1555 |
| 1910s | — | #1874 |
| 1920s | — | #2616 |
| 1930s | — | #3190 |
| 1940s | — | #3266 |
| 1950s | — | #3465 |
| 1960s | #7471 | #5373 |
| 1970s | #2250 | #3497 |
| 1980s | #638 | #6390 |
| 1990s | #218 | #7960 |
| 2000s | #173 | #3981 |
| 2010s | #291 | #1453 |
| 2020s | #480 | #749 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Cassidy
descendant of Caiside; from Irish cas, 'curly-haired'
The surname Ó Caiside means 'descendant of Caiside', and the personal name Caiside is built on the Irish word cas, 'curly' — so the sense reaching back through it is 'curly-haired one'.
Caiside → Ó Caiside → Cassidy
How it traveled
The Cassidys were an Irish family of Fermanagh, hereditary physicians to the Maguire lords there, and their surname — Ó Caiside — traveled with Irish emigration into English-speaking countries. In America the name became a fixture of Western storytelling: the outlaw Robert LeRoy Parker took Butch Cassidy as his alias, and the late-1960s film about him and the Sundance Kid put the word in front of an enormous audience.
Clover
the clover plant
From Old English clāfre, the name of the three-leafed pasture flower; the same word gives Dutch klaver. The four-leaf variety became a good-luck token in British, Irish and later American folk custom, and the phrase "in clover" — living well, like cattle in a rich field — dates from the eighteenth century.
clāfre (Old English) → clover → Clover
How it traveled
Clover belongs to the oldest layer of English vocabulary: clāfre was already the word for the pasture flower a thousand years ago, long before anyone thought to hand it to a child. It became a given name through the English habit of taking plants indoors as names, the same road traveled by Ivy, Daisy, Violet and Rose in the nineteenth century, when flower names swept through Britain and America together.
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
Cassidy
KASS-ih-dee
Stress on the first syllable, the middle one very light. English speakers read it correctly on sight; the Irish original, Ó Caiside, sounds close to oh-KASH-ih-djeh.
- Cass — The most common short form, used for Cassidy and for Cassandra alike; also given on its own.
- Cassie — Informal and long-established; stands alone as a given name in its own right.
- Cassidy — Frequently used in full — three syllables is short enough that many bearers never shorten it at all.
Clover
KLOH-ver
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly like the word for the plant. No competing pronunciations in English.
- Clo — The usual informal shortening within families; also spelled Cloe by some, which invites confusion with Chloe.
- Clovie — Affectionate diminutive, mostly used for small children rather than as anything official.
- Cee — Initial-based nickname, used casually among friends.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Cassidy if you want…
- a name fewer children share#541 in 2025 — cassidy will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name past its most crowded yearsCassidy is stepping back from its peak
- a name with more sound in itCassidy runs 3 syllables, Clover 2
Choose Clover if you want…
- a name most people already know#517 in 2025, 578 babies that year
- a name on the way upup 549 places on the charts in five years
- a name with fewer syllablesClover is 2 syllables to Cassidy's 3
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
Cassidy
Strengths
- One standard spelling that almost everyone reads and writes correctly on the first try, backed by a surname long familiar in English.
- Ready-made short forms — Cass and Cassie — both of which already work as names on their own.
- A documented Irish family line behind it, which matters to parents who want an ancestral rather than an invented name.
To consider
- The best-known bearer of the name in American memory is an outlaw, and Butch Cassidy is still the first association for many people. It is affectionate rather than damaging, but it will come up.
- Surname-names ending in -y for girls — Cassidy among them — carry a fairly clear sense of when they were fashionable, so the name reads as belonging to a particular stretch of decades rather than as timeless.
- Because Cass and Cassie are shared with Cassandra, expect people to guess wrong about the full name, and expect Cassidy to be misheard as Cassandra now and then.
Clover
Strengths
- Everyone already knows how to spell it — it is a common English word, so it survives phone calls and roll calls without correction.
- Two syllables with a single clear stress; easy for a toddler to say and easy to call across a playground.
- Sits in a well-established family of English plant names — Ivy, Daisy, Violet — so it reads as a name immediately, not as an invention.
To consider
- It is genuinely uncommon. A Clover will likely be the only one she meets, which some children enjoy and others tire of explaining.
- The name's rise is very recent, so nearly all Clovers are young. She may go years without meeting an adult who shares it.
- Word names attach easily to animals — Clover is a favorite for cows, ponies and cats, and is the name of the cart-mare in Orwell's Animal Farm. Worth knowing, though it rarely comes up in daily life.
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 Cassidy and Clover 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 Cassidy and Clover?
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 these names appear on
- Western names with dust on their boots
- Names that belong entirely to the 1990s
- Flower names in full bloom
- Cottagecore names from a storybook garden
- all guides
Where Cassidy and Clover each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Cassidy or Clover — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Cassidy or Clover?
- Clover, in 2025: Clover ranked #517 with 578 babies; Cassidy ranked #541 with 558 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Cassidy or Clover?
- Clover. Over the last five years Cassidy moved down 130 places; Clover moved up 549 places.
- Which is the older name, Cassidy or Clover?
- Cassidy entered the US charts in 1969; Clover entered the US charts in 1897. On the American record, Clover is the older name.
- How many people are named Cassidy and Clover?
- About 60,000 people named Cassidy are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 5,200 people named Clover are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Cassidys or Clovers in the classroom?
- Cassidy will almost certainly be the only one in school. Clover will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. 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 Cassidy, Clover and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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