Cleta
Feminine · “called back”
Cleta can be cut down from Cleopatra or built up from Cletus, and both routes are real. The second is the stranger one: Cletus is itself a shortening, made by the Church out of a longer Greek name because nobody could keep saying it.
How old is the name Cleta?
Cleta first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Cleta alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 1,200 people named Cleta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cleta most popular?
Cleta peaked in 1935, reaching #549 nationally. See the whole 1935 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Anakletos to Cleta
The story of Cleta
The third pope is listed in some sources as Anacletus and in others as Cletus, and for centuries the Church was not certain whether these were one man or two. Anakletos in Greek means called back; the shortened Cletus kept the sense and lost three letters, which is the same thing that happens to long names in every language. Cleta is the feminine of the shortened form, and it appears in American records from the nineteenth century, alongside Cletus itself. The other reading is simpler: Cleopatra has been cut down to Cleo and Cleta by families who liked the front of it and not the length.
Meaningscholars disagree
called back, summoned
If the name comes from Cletus, it is the Greek anakletos, called back or invoked. If it is cut from Cleopatra, the sense is quite different, glory of the father. The record does not say which a given family had in mind.
How the name formed
- Anakletos
- Cletus
- Cleta
Related forms: Cleta · Cletus · Anakletos
Pronouncing Cleta
KLEE-tuh
Two syllables, weight at the front, the first rhyming with free. Spanish says it the same way.
Nicknames for Cleta
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 1935136 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #549reached in 1935
- Change vs 1978
- 0.0%7 in 1980, from 7
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.
Cleta in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cleta in Spanish — same name
- Cletus in Latin — related form
- Anakletos in Greek — transliteration
Cletas among us
people named Cleta 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
Cleta 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
- Two syllables, five letters, and no sound that has to be taught.
- Cleo is a ready short form with a great deal of history behind it.
- It is uncommon in English while being entirely ordinary in Spanish, which suits a family that lives in both.
- It is regularly heard as Cleta, Kleta and Aleta, and the spelling will be asked for.
- Its origin is genuinely double, so a family cannot be told with certainty which story is theirs.
- It reads as a name of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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What they receive
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Cleta
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cletas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,200 people named Cleta are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cleta in 2025?
- Cleta is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cleta with classmates?
- Cleta 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 Cleta? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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