Claiborne
Masculine · “Clay stream”
Claiborne is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 1,210 boys against 27 girls since 1880.
Claiborne is a clay stream with both halves in disguise. The first element is the ordinary word for the soil and the second is the northern English word for a brook, and the French-looking spelling has hidden them so completely that the name now reads as aristocratic.
How old is the name Claiborne?
Claiborne first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Claiborne alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 600 people named Claiborne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Claiborne most popular?
Claiborne peaked in 1889, reaching #974 nationally. See the whole 1889 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Claegburna to Claiborne
The story of Claiborne
The American bearer of the surname fought a naval battle over an island. William Claiborne had a trading post on Kent Island in the Chesapeake before Maryland existed as a colony; when the charter was granted, the island was inside it, and he refused to accept that his post now belonged to somebody else. The dispute produced an exchange of fire between armed pinnaces in the bay in sixteen thirty-five, in which several men were killed, and it is generally counted the first naval engagement fought in North America between Europeans. He lost the island, spent decades in litigation and rebellion trying to get it back, and never did. The surname went on into Virginian families and from there to the front of a great many names.
Meaning
Clay stream
Old English claeg, clay, and burna, a stream, giving a place name that describes exactly what it says. Burn survives as an ordinary word in Scotland and northern England and has vanished from the south, which is why the element is invisible to most modern readers. The ai and the final e are later spellings and change nothing.
How the name formed
- Claegburna
- Claiborne
Pronouncing Claiborne
KLAY-born
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The final e is silent and the second syllable is reduced, which is why the name is also written Claiborn and Clayborne with no audible difference.
Nicknames for Claiborne
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1889
- Most boys named
- 194226 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #974reached in 1889
- Change vs 2016
- −37.5%5 in 2024, from 8
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Claibornes among us
people named Claiborne are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Claiborne sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Clay is waiting inside it as a short, current, entirely modern everyday name.
- The meaning is concrete and can be given in two words once the halves are pointed out.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- The record carries it for girls as well as boys, so it signals nothing on a form.
- Clayborne, Claiborn and Claybourne all exist, so spelling it out is permanent.
- It reads as a surname and carries a distinctly Virginian flavor in American ears.
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Claiborne
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Claibornes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Claiborne are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Claiborne in 2025?
- Claiborne is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Claiborne with classmates?
- Claiborne will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Claiborne? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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