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Clide vs Clyde

American parents have registered 148,926 Clydes since 1880, against 755 Clides. Clyde is still ahead, with 350 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Clide against Clyde, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Clide Clyde

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

Clyde has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1901, when Clide had 6 and Clyde had 418.

Side by side

  Clide Clyde
Total US births 755148,926
Most in one year 353,164
Babies in 2025 under 5350
Estimated living today 8047,000
Median age today 7567
Peak year 19191920
Best rank 1,264th boys68th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked742nd
First recorded 18831880
Girls / boys 37 / 7183,932 / 144,994

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 Clides alive today are over 75; half the Clydes are over 67. That is 8 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Clide and Clyde.