Clearence
Masculine · “from Clare”
Clearence writes the word clear into a name that has no clear in it. The name comes from an English dukedom, the dukedom was named after a Suffolk town, and the town's name has nothing to do with clarity; the respelling has reinterpreted a place name as an abstract noun, which is one of the more common things English speakers do to unfamiliar words.
How old is the name Clearence?
Clearence first appears in US birth records in 1897 — 128 years ago. The typical Clearence alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 400 people named Clearence are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clearence most popular?
Clearence peaked in 1927, reaching #892 nationally. See the whole 1927 chart.
Where it comes from
From A Suffolk town giving its name to a dukedom to Clearence
The story of Clearence
The title arrived in America as an aristocratic borrowing and stopped being aristocratic almost immediately. Nineteenth-century American families took English peerage names in quantity, on the reasonable grounds that they sounded well and belonged to nobody in particular, and gave them to sons across every social class. Within two generations the name was completely ordinary, then old-fashioned, and by the middle of the twentieth century it had acquired a reputation as a name for a gentle and slightly comic man, largely through fiction. That trajectory, from ducal title to figure of fun in about a hundred years, is unusually fast and it happened to several names from the same batch.
Meaning
from Clare
The name comes from a title created in the fourteenth century, taken from a Suffolk town, and the reading is a location. The English word for clarity is unrelated and the resemblance is a coincidence of spelling. The respelling here makes the coincidence visible and slightly harder to ignore, which is the whole effect of writing a familiar word into an unfamiliar name.
How the name formed
- A Suffolk town giving its name to a dukedom
- The title borrowed as an American first name
- Ordinary across every social class within two generations
- Clearence, respelled around an English word
Pronouncing Clearence
KLAIR-unce
Two or three syllables depending on how quickly it is said, with the stress on the first. The inserted e is silent and changes nothing audible; it exists only to make the English word visible on the page.
Nicknames for Clearence
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
- 1897
- Most boys named
- 192758 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #892reached in 1927
- Change vs 1978
- +20.0%6 in 1986, from 5
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.
Clearences among us
people named Clearence 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
Clearence 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 sound is completely familiar and needs no coaching.
- It carries a genuine English place and title behind it.
- It is rare enough now that a child would not share it.
- Clarence is the standard spelling and this one will be corrected into it constantly.
- The name carries a strong comic association from twentieth-century fiction.
- The inserted e suggests a connection to the word clear that does not exist.
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What they receive
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Clearence
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Clearences are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Clearence are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clearence in 2025?
- Clearence is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Clearence with classmates?
- Clearence 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 Clearence? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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