Clare
Feminine · “bright”
Clare is given to both — 31,456 girls and 3,054 boys since 1880. See Clare as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Clare wrote the first monastic rule composed by a woman for women, and she spent forty years getting it approved. Rome kept sending her rules written by men instead; she kept refusing them; the papal bull confirming hers reached her bed two days before she died.
How old is the name Clare?
Clare was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Clare alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 23,000 people named Clare are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clare most popular?
Clare peaked in 1884, reaching #320 nationally. Today it ranks #924, 604 places below that high. See the whole 1884 chart.
Where it comes from
From clarus to Clare
The story of Clare
Clare of Assisi ran away from a wealthy family at eighteen to follow Francis, founded an order, and then spent the rest of her life defending the one thing she cared about most: the right of her community to own nothing at all. Successive popes offered her comfortable rules with property attached, on the reasonable grounds that women could not beg safely; she refused each of them and wrote her own. It was approved in the summer of her death. English kept the name in the plain Latin spelling that Italian and Latin both use; France softened it to Claire, and English families have used both ever since without treating them as the same name.
Meaning
bright, clear
From the Latin clarus, which meant clear and then, by extension, famous or distinguished. The sense has never been disputed.
How the name formed
- clarus
- Chiara
- Clare
Related forms: Chiara · Claire · Clara · Klara
Pronouncing Clare
KLAIR
One syllable, rhyming with air. Italian gives it two, kee-AH-rah, and Spanish two as Clara.
Nicknames for Clare
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
- 1998510 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #320reached in 1884
- Change vs 2022
- +10.1%283 in 2025, from 257
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.
Clare in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Chiara in Italian — same name
- Claire in French — same name
- Clara in Spanish — same name
- Klara in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Illinois.
Clares among us
people named Clare are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,679 born in 2025 was named Clare
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Clare 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 Clare is headed
Clare 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.
Clare beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Clare in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and five letters, with no possible mispronunciation in English.
- It has a form in every western European language.
- The meaning is short, bright and settled, and easy to explain to a child.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- Claire is the commoner spelling in America and will be written instead.
- It is also an English word and an Irish county, and both will come up.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of boys, though it reads overwhelmingly as a girl's name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Clare to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Clare
Feminine · #924 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Clares are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 23,000 people named Clare are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clare in 2025?
- Clare ranks #924 among US girl names in 2025, with 283 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Clare?
- About 1 in every 5,679 US girls born in 2025 was named Clare — 283 in all.
- Will my child share the name Clare with classmates?
- Clare will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Clare
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maddie#925 · Elisabeth#925 · Ivey#925 · Emmeline#922 · Winifred#922 · Etta#928 · Brittany#928 · Emberlynn#928
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Clare? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Clare and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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