Claudine
Feminine · “lame”
Claudine is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 11,323 girls against 15 boys since 1880.
Claudine descends from a Roman family that was named for a limp. Claudius comes from claudus, the ordinary Latin word for lame, and the Claudii — one of the great patrician houses, which produced consuls and emperors — carried it for centuries without apparent embarrassment. Roman family names were frequently blunt in exactly this way.
How old is the name Claudine?
Claudine was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Claudine alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 5,900 people named Claudine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Claudine most popular?
Claudine peaked in 1935, reaching #460 nationally. See the whole 1935 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From claudus to Claudine
The story of Claudine
The emperor Claudius was mocked in his own lifetime for a limp and a stammer and turned out to be a considerably better administrator than the men who mocked him, which is the sort of thing the name has attached to it. It passed into French as Claude, used for men and women both, and French built Claudine from it with the diminutive ending it uses for exactly that. The name became modern and specifically French in the early twentieth century through a series of novels by Colette about a schoolgirl of that name, which were enormously read and put the name in front of a generation.
Meaningscholars disagree
lame
Latin claudus means lame or limping, and the connection to the family name Claudius is the standard reading. As with most very old Roman gens names it is reconstructed rather than recorded, and the family's own origin story claimed a Sabine ancestor instead. Roman names of this kind — Cicero from a chickpea, Naso from a nose — were descriptive nicknames that hardened into inherited names, at which point they stopped describing anyone. The -ine ending is French and adds nothing.
How the name formed
- claudus
- Claudius
- Claude
- Claudine
Related forms: Claude · Claudia · Claudia · Claudine
Pronouncing Claudine
klaw-DEEN
klaw-DEEN, two syllables, stress at the back, the ending said as a long e. French says it much the same way with a slightly rounder first vowel. The -ine ending is unambiguous, which the -ina and -yne spellings are not.
Nicknames for Claudine
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
- 1971335 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #460reached in 1935
- Change vs 2015
- −25.0%6 in 2024, from 8
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.
Claudine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Claude in French — related form
- Claudia in Italian — related form
- Claudia in Spanish — related form
- Claudine in German — same name
Claudines among us
people named Claudine 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
Claudine 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
- The Roman family behind it is among the best documented in history, and the etymology is genuinely unexpected.
- Claude and Dina are both available and they go in entirely different directions.
- The stress at the end gives it a clean finish against a front-stressed surname.
- The name reads as distinctly French in American rooms, which is either the point or a permanent small explanation.
- It is strongly associated with the mid twentieth century and has not returned.
- The literal meaning is a physical description, and a child who looks it up will find it — better said in advance than discovered.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Claudine to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Claudine? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Claudine
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Claudines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,900 people named Claudine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Claudine in 2025?
- Claudine is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Claudine with classmates?
- Claudine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Claudine? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Claudine and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle