Cleatus
Masculine · “Called back”
Cleatus is given to both — 894 boys and 71 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Cleatus is a Greek name that has had an unusually rough century in America — not because of anything it means, but because writers of television comedy needed a name for a particular kind of character and settled on this one.
How old is the name Cleatus?
Cleatus first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Cleatus alive today was born around 1934, making them about 91 years old. About 300 people named Cleatus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cleatus most popular?
Cleatus peaked in 1911, reaching #1038 nationally. See the whole 1911 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Anakletos to Cleatus
The story of Cleatus
Names can be captured. A writer needs a character who is rural, poor and comic; the audience needs to know all of that before the character speaks; so the writer reaches for a name that carries it, and if the name does its job it gets used again by somebody else, and again, until it belongs to the type rather than to the people who have it. That has happened to this name thoroughly enough that a man carrying it in America now arrives with a caricature attached that has nothing to do with him or with the early bishop the name came from. It is a real cost and it falls on real people, and the writers who did it were not thinking about them at all.
Meaning
Called back, summoned
The Greek name is built on a verb about calling or summoning, and the longer form means called back. The ea in this spelling writes the same vowel the shorter spelling writes with an e and changes nothing about the sense.
How the name formed
- Anakletos
- Cletus
- Cleatus
Related forms: Cleto · Cleto
Pronouncing Cleatus
KLEE-tus
Two syllables, stress at the front. The ea writes a long e, exactly as the shorter spelling does.
Nicknames for Cleatus
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
- 1907
- Most boys named
- 192430 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1038reached in 1911
- Change vs 1976
- +20.0%6 in 1977, 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.
Cleatus in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cleto in Italian — same name
- Cleto in Spanish — same name
Cleatuss among us
people named Cleatus 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
Cleatus 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 meaning is settled and the name is genuinely ancient.
- It is short, firm and read correctly on sight.
- It is carried by almost nobody now, which for some families is the point.
- American television has attached a stock character to this name, and a child will meet that.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- Cletus is the standard spelling and his will be written that way.
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What they receive
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Cleatus
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Cleatuss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Cleatus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cleatus in 2025?
- Cleatus is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Cleatus with classmates?
- Cleatus 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 Cleatus? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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