Clancy
Masculine · “son of the red warrior”
Clancy is given to both — 1,425 boys and 585 girls since 1880. See Clancy as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Clancy is an Irish surname meaning son of the red warrior, and it is one of the more legible Irish names — both halves of the personal name behind it are ordinary Irish words.
How old is the name Clancy?
Clancy first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Clancy alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 1,200 people named Clancy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clancy most popular?
Clancy peaked in 1955, reaching #1725 nationally. Today it ranks #3583, 1,858 places below that high. See the whole 1955 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Flannchadh to Clancy
The story of Clancy
Flann is an old Irish word for red and a very common element in personal names — it described hair or complexion. Mac Fhlannchaidh named the descendants of a man so called, and the Clancys were hereditary lawyers to the O'Briens in County Clare. The surname reached America with Irish emigration and moved into given-name use in the twentieth century, helped by its cheerful sound.
Meaningscholars disagree
son of the red warrior
From Irish Mac Fhlannchaidh, built on flann, red or ruddy, and a second element generally read as a battle or a warrior. The first is settled; the second is argued over, and other readings have been proposed.
How the name formed
- Flannchadh
- Mac Fhlannchaidh
- Clancy
Related forms: Mac Fhlannchaidh · Flann
Pronouncing Clancy
KLAN-see
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation.
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 202334 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1725reached in 1955
- Change vs 2023
- −8.8%31 in 2025, from 34
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
- Flann in Irish — related form
Clancys among us
people named Clancy are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 55,099 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 Leanard 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: Leanard climbed just as high around 1934, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leanard'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
Where Clancy is headed
Clancy looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 26% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Clancy beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Clancy in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Irish meaning with a vivid image behind it.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Six letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
- It is used for girls as well in current records, so forms may guess wrong.
- A well-known American thriller writer carries the surname.
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What they receive
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Clancy
Masculine · #3583 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 1,200 people named Clancy are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clancy in 2025?
- Clancy ranks #3583 among US boy names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Clancy?
- About 1 in every 55,099 US boys born in 2025 was named Clancy — 31 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.
Geoffrey#3583 · Robinson#3583 · Kimani#3583 · Emre#3583 · Yoan#3583 · Anirudh#3583 · Sutter#3583 · Heber#3583
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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