Clotilde
Feminine · “famous in battle”
Clotilde converted a king and the Franks followed him. She was a Burgundian princess married to a pagan warlord, spent years arguing with him about his gods, and when he won a battle he had expected to lose he was baptized — and with him, in the traditional account, three thousand of his men on the same day.
How old is the name Clotilde?
Clotilde first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Clotilde alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 200 people named Clotilde are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Clotilde most popular?
Clotilde peaked in 1885, reaching #608 nationally. See the whole 1885 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Germanic words for fame and battle to Clotilde
The story of Clotilde
The conversion mattered more than any single battle of the period. The other Germanic kingdoms had taken Christianity in a form the Roman church regarded as heretical, which kept them at arm's length from the bishops and the old Gallo-Roman aristocracy. The Franks went straight to the Catholic version, which gave their kings the church's machinery, its literacy and its landholding classes at a stroke, and is a large part of why the Frankish kingdom outlasted all its rivals. Clotilde is credited with it in every source, and she spent her widowhood founding monasteries.
Meaning
famous in battle
The name is Germanic and both halves are transparent: a word for fame or glory and a word for battle. The first element is the same one that produced Louis and Ludwig; the second closes a great many women's names of the period. Frankish naming was full of these compounds and they were used across the family, which is why a queen and her husband could carry the same elements in different orders.
How the name formed
- Germanic words for fame and battle
- a Burgundian princess marries a Frankish king
- the Franks take Catholic rather than Arian Christianity
- the name stays in French and Italian use
- Clotilde appears in American records before 1880
Related forms: Clotilde · Clotilde · Klothilde
Pronouncing Clotilde
kloh-TEELD
Two syllables with the stress at the back in French. Italians give it three, kloh-TEEL-deh, and English readers usually produce something between the two.
Nicknames for Clotilde
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
- 192436 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #608reached in 1885
- Change vs 1990
- 0.0%5 in 2015, 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.
Clotilde in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Clotilde in French — same name
- Clotilde in Italian — same name
- Klothilde in German — same name
Clotildes among us
people named Clotilde 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
Clotilde 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 carries a genuinely consequential piece of European history.
- It is unrepeated in America — a girl carrying it will not meet another.
- Tilde is available and is unlike any other short form in use.
- It is a formal, foreign-looking name in an English-speaking playground.
- The English pronunciation is unsettled between the French and Italian readings.
- It has been out of American use for a century.
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Clotilde
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Clotildes 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 Clotilde are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Clotilde in 2025?
- Clotilde is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Clotilde with classmates?
- Clotilde will almost certainly be the only one in school.
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Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Clotilde? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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