Clemon
Masculine · “merciful”
Clemon is a worn-down Latin name whose most famous bearer is remembered for an anchor. The legend has the first Clement exiled to a quarry beyond the Black Sea, made to work with the prisoners there, and finally thrown into the sea tied to one; the anchor became his emblem and appears wherever he does.
How old is the name Clemon?
Clemon first appears in US birth records in 1894 — 131 years ago. The typical Clemon alive today was born around 1937, making them about 88 years old. About 500 people named Clemon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clemon most popular?
Clemon peaked in 1894, reaching #857 nationally. See the whole 1894 chart.
Where it comes from
From A Latin adjective meaning merciful to Clemon
Our story of Clemon
The anchor is a good example of how a saint's emblem works. Almost nothing in the story can be verified — the exile, the quarry, the sea, the sailors who were supposed to have recovered the body — and the earliest accounts are centuries after the man. What survives is the object. Once an emblem is fixed, it does the identifying: in a church window or on a carved boss the anchor says which Clement this is, without a caption, to a congregation that could not read. The emblems outlasted the legends that produced them, which is why the objects attached to saints are frequently better attested in art than the events they refer to are in writing.
Meaning
merciful
The Latin adjective means mild, gentle or merciful, and the reading is settled. It was a personal name in Rome before it was a Christian one, and its adoption by the early church was helped by how well the meaning fitted. This spelling changes the ending and nothing else.
How the name formed
- A Latin adjective meaning merciful
- A Roman personal name adopted by the early church
- An anchor attached to it as an emblem
- Clemon as an American spelling of the ending
Related forms: Clément · Clemente · Clemente
Pronouncing Clemon
KLEM-un
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the second reduced almost to nothing. The standard spelling ends in a different pair of letters that say exactly the same thing, which is why this spelling exists at all.
Nicknames for Clemon
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
- 1894
- Most boys named
- 191937 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #857reached in 1894
- Change vs 1996
- +20.0%6 in 2003, 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.
Clemon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Clément in French — related form
- Clemente in Italian — related form
- Clemente in Spanish — related form
Clemons among us
people named Clemon 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
Clemon 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 a single word and an unusually good one to give.
- Clem is available immediately and has a long history of its own.
- The sound is clear and needs no coaching from anybody.
- Clement and Clemmon are both in use and will be written for it.
- It is firmly of the nineteenth century in American records.
- The ending will be corrected to the Latin one by anybody who knows the name.
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Clemon
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Clemons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Clemon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clemon in 2025?
- Clemon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Clemon with classmates?
- Clemon 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 Clemon? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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