Clancy
Feminine · “Irish Mac Fhlannchaidh”
Clancy is given to both — 585 girls and 1,425 boys since 1880. See Clancy as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Irish has a fine-grained vocabulary for hair and complexion and it runs right through the name stock. Fionn is fair, dubh is black, donn is brown, ciar is dark, rua is red-haired, and flann is red or ruddy. Clancy contains flann, and between them those six words account for a substantial share of Irish surnames.
How old is the name Clancy?
Clancy first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Clancy alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 600 people named Clancy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clancy most popular?
Clancy peaked in 1973, reaching #4155 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 4,207 places below that high. See the whole 1973 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From flann to Clancy
The story of Clancy
The color words in Irish naming are descriptive in origin and they were applied to individuals before they were inherited. Fionn, fair, gives Finn, Fintan, Finnegan and the surname Gilfinnan; dubh, black, gives Duff, Dooley, Doyle and Dubhghall, which is the source of Dougal and Doyle both; donn, brown, gives Donn and Donovan; ciar, dark, gives Ciara and Kerry; rua, red, gives Rooney and Roy; and flann, red, gives Flannery, Flanagan and Clancy. Between them they describe a range of hair and skin coloring with more precision than English manages, and they were used the way a nickname is used, to distinguish two men of the same name. Once surnames became hereditary the descriptions froze, and families now carry hair colors their ancestors had a thousand years ago.
Meaning
Irish Mac Fhlannchaidh, son of the red warrior
From the Irish Mac Fhlannchaidh, son of Flannchadh, from flann, red or ruddy, and cath, battle. The surname belonged to families in Clare and Leitrim. As an American given name Clancy has been used for both sexes and peaks for girls in 1973. The initial C of the anglicized form comes from the mutated Fh, which is silent in Irish.
How the name formed
- flann
- Mac Fhlannchaidh
- Clancy
Related forms: Mac Fhlannchaidh · Clancey
Pronouncing Clancy
KLAN-see
Two syllables, stress on the first, short a. The Irish Flannchadh is FLAN-uh-khah with a throat consonant English does not have, and the anglicized form has lost both that and the initial F.
Nicknames for Clancy
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
- 1921
- Most girls named
- 199324 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4155reached in 1973
- Change vs 2024
- −7.7%12 in 2025, from 13
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.
Clancy in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Mac Fhlannchaidh in Irish — related form
- Clancey in English — spelling variant
Clancys among us
people named Clancy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Clancy
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 Dareen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Clancy's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dareen climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dareen's path sketches the road Clancy is walking now.
Clancy sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Clancy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Clancy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Irish etymology is settled and vivid.
- It is short, unisex and easy to say.
- It fits the fashion for Irish surnames as given names.
- It reads as male to many Americans.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- The Irish original is unrecognizable in the anglicized form.
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What they receive
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Clancy
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Clancys 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 Clancy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clancy in 2025?
- Clancy ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Clancy?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Clancy — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Clancy with classmates?
- Clancy will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Clancy
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Clancy? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Clancy and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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