Klayton
Masculine · “settlement on clay”
Klayton respells Clayton, and the English place name is the clay settlement — clæg and tun, two of the plainest Old English words there are.
How old is the name Klayton?
Klayton first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Klayton alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 3,000 people named Klayton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Klayton most popular?
Klayton peaked in 2018, reaching #1401 nationally. Today it ranks #1793, 392 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From clæg tun to Klayton
The story of Klayton
Clayton was an English place name and surname carried to America, where it entered given-name use in the nineteenth century among the wide family of -ton surnames. The K respelling appears in the American registers from the 1990s, part of the general K fashion, and is in current use.
Meaning
settlement on clay
From the Old English clæg, 'clay', and tun, 'settlement' or 'enclosure'. Villages called Clayton appear across Yorkshire, Sussex, Lancashire and Staffordshire. Both elements are ordinary and the compound is transparent and undisputed.
How the name formed
- clæg tun
- Clayton
- Klayton
Related forms: Clayton · Kleyton
Pronouncing Klayton
KLAY-tun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Klayton and Clayton are said identically.
Nicknames for Klayton
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
- 1958
- Most boys named
- 2018125 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1401reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- +4.7%89 in 2025, from 85
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.
Klayton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Clayton in English — spelling variant
- Kleyton in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Klaytons among us
people named Klayton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 19,192 born in 2025 was named Klayton
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Klayton
- #1793
- Klayton on the 2025 chart
- #276
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Klayton went to 89 boys in 2025, but Clayton is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 1,219, which makes it the 276th most-given boys’ name of the year — 1,517 places above the chart.
- Clayton1,130
- Klayton89
About 1 boy in 1,401 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 19,192 for Klayton itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Alvino test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Klayton's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Alvino climbed just as high around 1966, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Alvino's path sketches the road Klayton is walking now.
Klayton 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
Where Klayton is headed
Klayton should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Klayton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Klayton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The clay-settlement meaning is concrete and belongs to a very large family of English place names.
- Klay and Clay are two short forms, both with real records.
- Two firm syllables that carry well against any surname.
- Clayton is overwhelmingly the standard spelling.
- The K will need dictating every time.
- It reads as a surname before it reads as a given name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Klayton
Masculine · #1793 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Klaytons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Klayton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Klayton?
- Klayton is one of 2 recorded spellings. Clayton is the more common one — 1,130 births in 2025 against 89 for Klayton.
- How popular is the name Klayton in 2025?
- Klayton ranks #1793 among US boy names in 2025, with 89 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Klayton?
- About 1 in every 19,192 US boys born in 2025 was named Klayton — 89 in all.
- Will my child share the name Klayton with classmates?
- Klayton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Klayton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rico#1793 · Auden#1793 · Kodi#1793 · Iman#1793 · Asael#1793 · Donnie#1793 · Valentine#1793 · Romari#1793
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Klayton? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Klayton and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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