Clifton
Feminine · “settlement by the cliff”
Clifton is given to boys far more often — 70,249 boys against 436 girls since 1880. See Clifton as a boy name
Clifton entered the US charts in 1908, peaked at #2034 in 1913, is rarely given in 2025 — given to only a few children a year.
How old is the name Clifton?
Clifton first appears in US birth records in 1908 — 117 years ago. The typical Clifton alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 200 people named Clifton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clifton most popular?
Clifton peaked in 1913, reaching #2034 nationally. See the whole 1913 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From clif + tun to Clifton
The story of Clifton
Cliftons occur across England — in Bristol, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and elsewhere — and the families from them carried the surname. It crossed into American given-name use in the nineteenth century, in the same wave that produced Milton, Burton, Preston and Alton, and Clifton peaked in American records around 1920.
Meaning
settlement by the cliff
From the Old English clif, 'cliff' or 'steep bank', and tun, 'enclosure' or 'farmstead'. Both survive in modern English, which makes this one of the few place names an English speaker can read without help.
How the name formed
- clif + tun
- Clifton
Related forms: Cliffton · Clift
Pronouncing Clifton
KLIF-tun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Both elements are ordinary English words.
Nicknames for Clifton
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
- 1908
- Most girls named
- 197013 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2034reached in 1913
- Change vs 1987
- +60.0%8 in 1988, 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.
Clifton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cliffton in English — spelling variant
- Clift in English — related form
Cliftons among us
people named Clifton 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
Clifton 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
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What they receive
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Clifton
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cliftons 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 Clifton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clifton in 2025?
- Clifton is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Clifton with classmates?
- Clifton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Clifton? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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