Clearance
Masculine
Clearance is either a Latin name written down by ear or an English noun used as a name, and the record does not say which. A closely related word shows how completely a job can separate itself from the institution that invented it.
How old is the name Clearance?
Clearance first appears in US birth records in 1903 — 122 years ago. The typical Clearance alive today was born around 1933, making them about 92 years old. About 200 people named Clearance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clearance most popular?
Clearance peaked in 1903, reaching #1130 nationally. See the whole 1903 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Clearance
A clerk is a cleric. For centuries the people who could read and write in western Europe were in holy orders, so anybody doing written work — keeping accounts, drafting documents, recording a court — was a clericus, and the word simply followed the function out of the church. This is also where benefit of clergy comes from: a defendant who could read was treated as a churchman and tried in a church court, which did not hang people, so literacy was a defense against the gallows and the test was a verse of the psalms. Clerk, cleric, clergy and clerical all descend from the Greek kleros, a lot or an inheritance, from the idea of the clergy as the portion belonging to God.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name it most likely respells is a Latin title built on a word meaning bright or clear, attached to an English dukedom. This spelling matches an ordinary English noun instead, and nothing documents an intention either way.
Pronouncing Clearance
KLAR-unss
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The spelling suggests three and a long first vowel; families saying it as the name rather than the word use two.
Nicknames for Clearance
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
- 1903
- Most boys named
- 192528 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1130reached in 1903
- Change vs 1971
- +14.3%8 in 1972, 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.
Clearances among us
people named Clearance 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
Clearance 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
- Rance detaches cleanly and is a standing name in American use.
- The sound is entirely familiar whichever reading is taken.
- It is genuinely rare and belongs to almost nobody now living.
- Clarence is the standard spelling and this will be corrected constantly.
- The spelling matches an ordinary English noun, which readers hear first.
- The name and the word are stressed and said differently.
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Clearance
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Clearances are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Clearance are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clearance in 2025?
- Clearance is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Clearance with classmates?
- Clearance 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 Clearance? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Clearance and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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