Claire
Feminine · “bright”
Claire is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 211,919 girls against 2,204 boys since 1880. See Claire as a boy name
The i is the whole difference between the English name and the French one. Clare is the older English spelling and Claire is the French, and although they are said identically in America the extra letter is not idle: it marks which side of the Channel the family took the name from, and it is the reason the two forms have kept separate lives.
How old is the name Claire?
Claire was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Claire alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 170,000 people named Claire are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Claire most popular?
Claire peaked in 2016, reaching #40 nationally. Today it ranks #68, 28 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Claire appears on these lists:
- Distinctly American names
- America's top 100 names right now
- Generation Alpha names (born 2013 onward)
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- Six-letter names in current use
- Names in use since the records began
- all guides
Works in French families too:
Where it comes from
From clarus to Claire
The story of Claire
There is a large Irish Clare that has nothing to do with any of this. County Clare takes its name from an Irish word meaning a flat place or a plank — most likely a board bridge across a river at Clarecastle — and the resemblance to the personal name is a complete coincidence of spelling. The two words come from different language families and met only when English orthography flattened them into the same five letters. That is worth knowing because the assumption runs the other way constantly: people meeting an Irish Clare assume the county was named for a woman, or that a woman was named for the county, and neither is true.
Meaning
bright, clear
From a Latin adjective that meant clear or bright and then, by an easy extension, famous. The name and the words clarity and declare all descend from it, which makes the sense unusually easy to demonstrate.
Cultural footprint
Claire Danes (b. 1979) — Homeland's Emmy-winning star
Claire Foy (b. 1984) — The Crown's young Queen Elizabeth II
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
How the name formed
- clarus
- Clare
- Claire
Related forms: Claire · Chiara · Clara · Klara
Pronouncing Claire
KLAIR
One syllable. The i changes nothing audible in English, though French gives the vowel a slightly different quality that American speakers do not reproduce.
Nicknames for Claire
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20165,216 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #40reached in 2016
- Change vs 2022
- +3.2%3,487 in 2025, from 3,380
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.
Claire in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Claire in French — same name
- Chiara in Italian — same name
- Clara in Spanish — same name
- Klara in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York. International figures from Statistics Canada. Sources
Claires among us
people named Claire are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 461 born in 2025 was named Claire
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Alicia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Claire's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alicia climbed just as high around 1984, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alicia's path sketches the road Claire is walking now.
Claire is coming down from a big peak (#40 in 2016). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Claire is headed
Claire should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Claire beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Claire in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, unambiguous in sound, and recognized across Europe.
- The meaning is bright and positive and easy to demonstrate from ordinary English words.
- It has stayed in use continuously rather than arriving with a fashion.
- Clare is equally standard, so the spelling will be queried for life.
- It is currently common enough that a child may not be the only one.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Claire to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Claire
Feminine · #68 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Claires are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 170,000 people named Claire are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Claire in 2025?
- Claire ranks #68 among US girl names in 2025, with 3,487 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Claire?
- About 1 in every 461 US girls born in 2025 was named Claire — 3,487 in all.
- Will my child share the name Claire with classmates?
- Claire will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Claire
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zoey#69 · Paisley#67 · Genesis#66 · Vivian#70 · Madelyn#70 · Eden#70 · Alice#65 · Ruby#64
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Claire? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Claire and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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