Clarance
Masculine · “of Clare”
Clarance is Clarence spelled the way the second syllable is actually said, which is to say barely at all. The name behind it is not a saint or a word but a title: the dukedom of Clarence, one of the grandest in England, invented for a king's son and handed down ever since.
How old is the name Clarance?
Clarance was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Clarance alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 1,100 people named Clarance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clarance most popular?
Clarance peaked in 1882, reaching #399 nationally. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Clare to Clarance
The story of Clarance
Edward the Third made his second surviving son Duke of Clarence in 1362, taking the title from the honor of Clare in Suffolk, which had come to him by marriage. The dukedom stayed in the royal family and gathered a reputation for bad ends, including a duke drowned in a butt of wine. In the nineteenth century English parents began taking aristocratic titles as first names, and Clarence arrived alongside Percy, Sydney, Howard and Clive. Clarance is the phonetic spelling of that borrowing: the middle vowel of Clarence is reduced almost to nothing in speech, and a writer going by ear can put an a there as easily as an e.
Meaning
of Clare, the Suffolk town
The dukedom was named for the honor of Clare in Suffolk, and the town's own name is probably from a river word. So the meaning of Clarence is not brightness, despite the resemblance to clarus, but a particular English place.
How the name formed
- Clare
- Clarence
- Clarance
Pronouncing Clarance
KLAR-unss
Two syllables, weight at the front, the second reduced to a hum. Clarence and Clarance are said identically, which is exactly why both spellings exist.
Nicknames for Clarance
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 boys named
- 1925105 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #399reached in 1882
- Change vs 1997
- 0.0%7 in 2009, from 7
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.
Clarances among us
people named Clarance 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
Clarance 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
- It is read correctly at sight by anyone who has met the commoner spelling.
- It carries several established short forms, including Rance, which stands alone as a name.
- The title behind it is real, documented and traceable to a specific English town.
- Clarence is the standard spelling and will be written instead, every time.
- The name is firmly of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and reads that way.
- The a changes nothing about the sound, so the difference exists only on paper.
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Clarance
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Clarances are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Clarance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clarance in 2025?
- Clarance is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Clarance with classmates?
- Clarance 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 Clarance? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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