Clemens vs Cletus
American parents have registered 7,709 Cletuses since 1880, against 1,641 Clemenses. Cletus is still ahead, with 9 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Clemens Cletus
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 138 years in which either name was published, Cletus for 127 years and Clemens for 11 years. The lead changed hands 17 times.
- 1891–2022 Cletus ahead, apart from 2 short spells
15 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Clemens | Cletus | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 1,641 | 7,709 |
| Most in one year | 66 | 243 |
| Babies in 2025 | under 5 | 9 |
| Estimated living today | 300 | 2,100 |
| Median age today | 66 | 65 |
| Peak year | 1918 | 1922 |
| Best rank | 805th boys | 391st boys |
| Rank in 2025 | unranked | 8,243rd |
| First recorded | 1885 | 1886 |
| Girls / boys | 0 / 1,641 | 272 / 7,437 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Where each one is strongest
- Clemens North Dakota (14.3×), Wisconsin (13.3×), Minnesota (5.7×)
- Cletus Iowa (8.2×), Missouri (4.7×), Wisconsin (3.7×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Clemens and Cletus.