Clell
Masculine
Clell has one vowel letter and four consonants, which is lean even by English standards. It is cut out of the middle of a Scottish surname, keeping neither the front nor the back, and the result looks like a word from a language that runs on consonants rather than an American given name.
How old is the name Clell?
Clell first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Clell alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 300 people named Clell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clell most popular?
Clell peaked in 1899, reaching #714 nationally. See the whole 1899 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Clell
The surname's most famous bearer built an army and could not be made to use it. McClellan took command of the Union forces early in the American civil war, trained and organized them brilliantly, was adored by his men, and then spent a year finding reasons not to attack: the enemy was always larger than it was, the ground was always wrong, the moment was always next week. He was removed, ran for president against the man who had removed him, and lost. Historians have argued about him ever since, some seeing a competent organiser miscast as a commander and others something worse, and nobody has ever settled whether the caution was temperament or conviction. The name that came out of his was given to boys across the American middle west for two generations afterwards.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No source can be established with confidence. The likeliest parent is a surname of the McClellan family, from which the middle syllable was taken; other suggestions exist and none is documented. American frontier naming produced a great many short forms of this kind and recorded no explanations for any of them.
Pronouncing Clell
KLEL
One syllable. The doubled l keeps the vowel short and closed, and the whole name rhymes with bell; nothing about the spelling is ambiguous once it has been seen.
Nicknames for Clell
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
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 192449 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #714reached in 1899
- Change vs 1978
- +20.0%6 in 1988, 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.
Clells among us
people named Clell 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
Clell 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
- One syllable, five letters, and no possible confusion about how to say it.
- It is genuinely uncommon while containing nothing unfamiliar.
- Short names age well and never need shortening further.
- It reads as a fragment rather than a whole name to anyone meeting it cold.
- There is no meaning to give a child, and no full name to fall back on.
- It is firmly dated to the nineteenth century in American records.
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Clell
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Clells 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 Clell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clell in 2025?
- Clell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Clell with classmates?
- Clell 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 Clell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Clell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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