Name Awesome

Clem

Boys' name

Short form of Clement

Clem has been given to 4,329 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1917, with 102 recorded.

Babies named Clem, 2017

1 in 397,000

Clem over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Clem: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Clement

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Clem means

Clem is a short form of Clement.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Clem is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈklɛm/ for Clem.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Clem → Clement. The family’s meaning is “merciful”, recorded in English with the source elements clēmens.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Clement and Clementine.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,275 boys were recorded with the name Clem between 1880 and 2017. Its highest annual count was 102 in 1917; its best national rank was #260 in 1889.

In the United States, 54 girls were recorded with the name Clem between 1889 and 1926. Its highest annual count was 7 in 1917; its best national rank was #1,237 in 1890.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Clem?

Clem had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2017, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2017
1 in 397,000
9 of 3,577,106 births
Among boys only
1 in 206,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2017
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
275,497 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Clem sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2017 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 275,497 children born in 2017 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Clem. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Clems were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Clem was born before 1927 — so the typical Clem is around 98 today.

Median birth year
1927
About 98 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
875
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.8% of all recorded uses (845).

Is Clem rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1917 (102)
Years since peak
108
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
31.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#260
1889

Spellings of Clem

Clem is not the most common spelling — Caleb is, with 20.1% against Clem's 0.27%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Clem is used

Across 1910–2025, Clem was most concentrated in Georgia — about 1 in 50,000 boys, against 1 in 118,010 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Georgia1 in 50,000
  2. 2Indiana1 in 50,000
  3. 3Mississippi1 in 50,000
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 50,000
  5. 5Texas1 in 50,000
  6. 6Alabama1 in 100,000
  7. 7Illinois1 in 100,000
  8. 8Louisiana1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Clem has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Clem around the world

Where Clem ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1999–2003
    #2,857
    in 2003
  • South Australia
    1945–2012
    #514
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Clem

People whose public names include Clem, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Clem by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#260
1889
Peak year
1917
102 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2017
All-time count
4,275
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,237
1890
Peak year
1917
7 that year
First recorded
1889
Last recorded
1926
All-time count
54
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Clem

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CleoCleonCleveCletusSalemHarlemClementeWillemClellClementKalemCletisShulemClemonAlemCalemLemClemensCleteClevenCleeClemmieCleophusClever

Names with a curve like Clem

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Clem, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

GeneralEarlyWinfieldElzieElmoreAllieGranvilleColumbusGarfieldEddWebsterJunius

Sibling names for Clem

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Clem

Top names of 1917, Clem's peak yearThe 1910s in fullOther names that peaked in 1889More old man namesBoys' names starting with CShort French Boy Names