Claud
Masculine · “lame”
Claud is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 10,893 boys against 47 girls since 1880.
Claud is Claude with the French e removed — the English-facing spelling of a Roman family name that meant, quite bluntly, lame.
How old is the name Claud?
Claud was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Claud alive today was born around 1922, making them about 103 years old. About 1,600 people named Claud are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Claud most popular?
Claud peaked in 1885, reaching #139 nationally. See the whole 1885 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From claudus to Claud
The story of Claud
The Claudii were one of the great patrician houses of the Roman republic, and their name passed through the empire into Gaul, where a seventh-century bishop made it a saint's name. France kept Claude in continuous use for a thousand years. English-speaking families borrowed it and, as they often did with French names, dropped the final e to make it look native — Claud appears in British and American records through the nineteenth century, peaking around 1900.
Meaning
lame
From the Latin claudus, 'lame'. Roman family names were often built from a physical description of a founding ancestor: Cicero from a chickpea, Naso from a nose, Claudius from a limp. The emperor Claudius, who had a visible one, made the name imperial rather than embarrassing.
How the name formed
- claudus
- Claudius
- Claude
- Claud
Related forms: Claude · Claudio · Claudio · Claudius
Pronouncing Claud
KLAWD
One syllable, rhyming with 'clawed'. Claud and Claude are homophones; the e does no audible work.
Nicknames for Claud
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
- 1919344 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #139reached in 1885
- Change vs 1993
- −58.3%5 in 2010, from 12
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.
Claud in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Claude in French — spelling variant
- Claudio in Italian — related form
- Claudio in Spanish — related form
- Claudius in German — related form
Clauds among us
people named Claud 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
Claud has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Two thousand years of continuous documented use, which very few names can claim.
- The spelling reads as English rather than French while keeping the same sound.
- It is standard as Claudio across Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
- The literal meaning is 'lame', which some families will want to weigh.
- Claude is far commoner and will be assumed by anyone writing the name down.
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What they receive
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Claud
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Clauds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Claud are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Claud in 2025?
- Claud is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Claud with classmates?
- Claud 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 Claud? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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