Cleveland
Masculine · “cliff land”
Cleveland is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 21,945 boys against 87 girls since 1880.
Cleveland is a piece of English landscape that became a surname, then an American city, then a boy's name. The word underneath it is plain description: the land of cliffs.
How old is the name Cleveland?
Cleveland was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cleveland alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 9,800 people named Cleveland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cleveland most popular?
Cleveland peaked in 1884, reaching #92 nationally. Today it ranks #7194, 7,102 places below that high. See the whole 1884 chart.
Cleveland appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From clif to Cleveland
The story of Cleveland
The district gave its name to families, the families gave it to an American president, and the president gave it to a generation of boys. Grover Cleveland's two separated terms at the end of the nineteenth century put the surname in front of every literate household in the country, and American parents did what they have always done with a president's name. The Ohio city has a separate story, named for a surveyor who laid it out, but the two reinforced each other until the word felt thoroughly American rather than English.
Meaning
cliff land
From Old English clif, 'cliff', and land. It names a real district in the north-east of England, hilly ground above the Tees, and families who came from there carried the place with them as a surname.
How the name formed
- clif
- Cleveland
Pronouncing Cleveland
KLEEV-luhnd
Two syllables in ordinary speech, stress on the first. The middle e is swallowed.
Nicknames for Cleveland
Limited
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1921339 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #92reached in 1884
- Change vs 2022
- −8.3%11 in 2025, from 12
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.
Cleveland in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida.
Clevelands among us
people named Cleveland are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 155,280 born in 2025 was named Cleveland
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Cleveland sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Cleveland beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cleveland in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Cleve is a strong, short, ready-made nickname that stands on its own.
- A transparent landscape meaning rather than an obscure one: cliffs and land, both still ordinary English words.
- It belongs to the surname-as-first-name tradition that still produces most new American boys' names.
- The Ohio city is the first association for most Americans, so the name arrives attached to a place rather than to a person.
- It is three syllables written and two spoken, which people get wrong when reading it aloud from a list.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Cleveland
Masculine · #7194 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Clevelands are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,800 people named Cleveland are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cleveland in 2025?
- Cleveland ranks #7194 among US boy names in 2025, with 11 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cleveland?
- About 1 in every 155,280 US boys born in 2025 was named Cleveland — 11 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cleveland with classmates?
- Cleveland will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cleveland
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Junius#7194 · Orie#7194 · Shade#7194 · Chesley#7194 · Joesph#7194 · Lofton#7194 · Macon#7194 · Benjiman#7194
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cleveland? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cleveland and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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