Cleone
Feminine · “Glory”
Cleone is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 1,320 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Cleone is a Greek name that English has never quite decided how to say. It is built on the most prestigious word in Homeric Greek, and it is also the name of a small city in the Argolid, and the American record holds it for boys and for girls without distinguishing.
How old is the name Cleone?
Cleone first appears in US birth records in 1890 — 135 years ago. The typical Cleone alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. About 200 people named Cleone are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cleone most popular?
Cleone peaked in 1915, reaching #990 nationally. See the whole 1915 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kleos to Cleone
The story of Cleone
Cleon was a real Athenian, the tanner's son who led the city after Pericles died and who is the standing villain of Aristophanes' comedies. The playwright attacked him from the stage, Cleon took him to court over it, and Aristophanes went back the following season and attacked him harder. Kleonai, the city, sat on the road between Corinth and Argos and administered the games at Nemea, one of the four great athletic festivals of the Greek world, until Argos took them over, which was roughly the fate of every small city that had something worth taking. English picked the name up out of classical dictionaries in the eighteenth century, when parents were reading Greek names off lists and could not always tell whether they had found a man's or a woman's.
Meaning
Glory, fame
The first element is Greek kleos, the word for the reputation that outlives a person, the thing heroes in epic poetry choose over a long quiet life. It stands at the front of Cleon, Cleopatra and Cleobulus and at the back of Damocles and Pericles, and it comes from the same distant root as the Latin clarus behind Clara and Clarinda. Cleone is the feminine of Cleon, and the final e is a Greek ending that English keeps writing and then not saying.
How the name formed
- kleos
- Kleon
- Kleone
- Cleone
Related forms: Kleone · Cleone
Pronouncing Cleone
klee-OH-nee
The Greek has three syllables with the stress in the middle, klee-OH-nee. American families have also said klee-OHN, treating the final e as silent in the ordinary English way. Both readings are in use and at this distance neither is wrong.
Nicknames for Cleone
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
- 1890
- Most girls named
- 192650 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #990reached in 1915
- Change vs 1956
- +16.7%7 in 1957, from 6
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.
Cleone in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kleone in Greek — transliteration
- Cleone in Latin — spelling variant
Cleones among us
people named Cleone 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
Cleone 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
- Cleo is waiting inside it as a ready-made everyday name, and Cleo is doing well on its own account.
- It is unusual without being invented: every part of it is Greek and can be checked.
- The name works for a child of either sex, which is rare among names this old.
- There are two live pronunciations and no way to signal which one you mean, so it will be corrected at every introduction.
- The record carries the spelling for boys and girls both, so forms and rosters will guess and guess wrong.
- Cleo is likely to take over completely, and a child may reach adulthood without ever using the longer name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Cleone to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Cleone? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cleone
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cleones 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 Cleone are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cleone in 2025?
- Cleone is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cleone with classmates?
- Cleone will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cleone? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cleone and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle