Clide
Masculine · “from the river Clyde”
Clide is given to both — 718 boys and 37 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Clide is the Scottish river name spelled the way it sounds, and it is one of the older entries in the American record. It was given almost entirely to sons. The name's biggest moment in the public mind came from a roll of film.
How old is the name Clide?
Clide first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Clide alive today was born around 1925, making them about 100 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Clide are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Clide most popular?
Clide peaked in 1883, reaching #892 nationally. See the whole 1883 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Clota to Clide
The story of Clide
Two small-time robbers from Texas would probably be a footnote if a sheriff's posse had not raided an abandoned hideout in Missouri and found, among the clothes and weapons, an undeveloped roll of film. The pictures on it were posed larks taken for their own amusement: a woman with a cigar and a pistol, the pair leaning on a car, mugging for each other. Newspapers printed them everywhere and the two stopped being criminals and became characters. The reporting that followed exaggerated nearly everything about them, and the public's affection for the photographs survived their deaths by decades — a film thirty years later was built on the same images. It is one of the clearest cases on record of celebrity created by a single misplaced object rather than by anything its subjects did.
Meaningscholars disagree
from the river Clyde
The name is the river's, and the river's own name is old enough that its meaning is argued over: a word for washing or cleansing is the usual proposal, and a goddess of the river is recorded by that name in antiquity. What the word meant before it was a river is not settled.
How the name formed
- Clota
- Clyde
- Clide
Pronouncing Clide
KLYDE
One syllable. The i here does exactly what the y does in the standard spelling, so the respelling is audible nowhere and visible everywhere.
Nicknames for Clide
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
- 1883
- Most boys named
- 191931 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #892reached in 1883
- Change vs 1957
- 0.0%5 in 1960, 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.
Clides among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Clide are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Clide 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
- One syllable is short, carries across a room and is hard to mishear.
- The spelling is phonetic by English rules and needs no explanation.
- It names a real and very old river, which gives it something to stand on.
- Clyde is much the commoner spelling and this will be corrected for a lifetime.
- The outlaw association is fixed and arrives before anything else.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Clide
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Clides are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Clide are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Clide in 2025?
- Clide is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Clide with classmates?
- Clide 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 Clide? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Clide and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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