Cletis
Masculine · “called”
Cletis is given to both — 1,603 boys and 159 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Cletis descends from a name on the earliest lists of popes, and those lists are more interesting than they look. The first few names on them are shaky: the sources disagree about the order, about the dates, and in at least one case about whether two names belong to two men or to one man written down twice under a full form and a short one.
How old is the name Cletis?
Cletis first appears in US birth records in 1904 — 121 years ago. The typical Cletis alive today was born around 1935, making them about 90 years old. About 600 people named Cletis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cletis most popular?
Cletis peaked in 1904, reaching #1064 nationally. See the whole 1904 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A Greek participle meaning called or summoned to Cletis
The story of Cletis
The early papal lists were compiled long after the fact, from sources that did not agree with each other, and the first century of them is a genuine historical problem rather than a settled record. One well-known difficulty is that a full name and its short form both appear, at different points, as separate men, so that a single person may be counted twice. Historians have argued about it since the sixteenth century and the official lists have been revised more than once. It is worth knowing because it undercuts the impression of an unbroken numbered sequence stretching back to the first century: the sequence is real from a certain point onwards and reconstructed before it, and the reconstruction was done by people working with fragments. This name sits in that uncertain stretch.
Meaning
called, summoned
The Greek word behind the name means called or summoned, and it is the past participle of a common verb. The reading is settled. The same verb stands behind a much more consequential word: the Greek term for an assembly of people called out from their homes to meet, which is the word the New Testament uses for a congregation and which is the ancestor of the word for church in French, Spanish, Italian and a dozen other languages.
How the name formed
- A Greek participle meaning called or summoned
- A name on the earliest papal lists
- Cletus in English and American use
- Cletis as a phonetic spelling of the same
Related forms: Cletus · Kletos · Cleto
Pronouncing Cletis
KLEE-tis
Two syllables, stress on the first. The i in the second syllable is writing the same reduced vowel that the u in Cletus writes, so the two spellings are identical in speech and differ only in which letter a family chose for a sound that has no letter of its own.
Nicknames for Cletis
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
- 1904
- Most boys named
- 192444 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1064reached in 1904
- Change vs 1993
- 0.0%5 in 1996, 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.
Cletis in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cletus in Latin — same name
- Kletos in Greek — same name
- Cleto in Spanish — same name
Cletiss among us
people named Cletis 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
Cletis 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
- It is short, unusual and completely unambiguous once heard.
- It carries a genuine early-Christian history rather than a modern reconstruction of one.
- Clete is a strong short form that stands entirely on its own.
- The name carries a strong rural American association that has been reinforced by television.
- Cletus is the commoner spelling and this one will be corrected into it.
- The spelling appears on the register for girls as well as boys, in small numbers.
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What they receive
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Cletis
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Cletiss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Cletis are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cletis in 2025?
- Cletis is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Cletis with classmates?
- Cletis 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 Cletis? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cletis and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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