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Clement vs Cleve

American parents have registered 14,173 Clements since 1880, against 4,529 Cleves. Clement is still ahead, with 62 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Clement against Cleve, 1880 to 2025 0 100 200 300 400 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Clement Cleve

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 146 years in which either name was published, Clement for 139 years and Cleve for 7 years. The lead changed hands 4 times.

Side by side

  Clement Cleve
Total US births 14,1734,529
Most in one year 34483
Babies in 2025 62under 5
Estimated living today 4,9001,700
Median age today 5664
Peak year 19181951
Best rank 297th boys766th boys
Rank in 2025 2,258thunranked
First recorded 18801882
Girls / boys 6 / 14,16723 / 4,506

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.

Which name is older

Half of the Cleves alive today are over 64; half the Clements are over 56. That is 8 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

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: Clement and Cleve.