Name Awesome

Cleve

Boys' name

Short form of Cleveland

Cleve has been given to 4,529 babies in the U.S. since 1882. 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 1951, with 83 recorded.

Babies named Cleve, 2013

1 in 729,000

Cleve over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Cleve: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Cleveland

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Cleve means

Cleve is a short form of Cleveland.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Cleve is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈkliːv/ for Cleve.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Cleve → Cleveland. The family’s meaning is “cliff land”, recorded in the naming reference for Cleveland.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Cleveland.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,506 boys were recorded with the name Cleve between 1882 and 2013. Its highest annual count was 83 in 1951; its best national rank was #191 in 1885.

In the United States, 23 girls were recorded with the name Cleve between 1918 and 1930. Its highest annual count was 6 in 1918; its best national rank was #4,279 in 1928.

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 Cleve?

Cleve had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2013, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2013
1 in 729,000
5 of 3,645,938 births
Among boys only
1 in 378,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2013
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
505,435 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Cleve 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 2013 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 505,435 children born in 2013 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cleve. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cleves were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Cleve was born before 1940 — so the typical Cleve is around 85 today.

Median birth year
1940
About 85 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
15.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
3.9%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,719
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 15.1% of all recorded uses (682).

Is Cleve 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 1951 (83)
Years since peak
74
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#191
1885

Spellings of Cleve

Cleve is not the most common spelling — Steve is, with 27.3% against Cleve's 0.51%.

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 Cleve is used

Across 1910–2025, Cleve was most concentrated in Alabama — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 123,410 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Alabama1 in 25,000
  2. 2Georgia1 in 33,333
  3. 3Mississippi1 in 33,333
  4. 4Arkansas1 in 50,000
  5. 5Louisiana1 in 50,000
  6. 6South Carolina1 in 50,000
  7. 7Florida1 in 100,000
  8. 8Oklahoma1 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. Cleve has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Cleve around the world

Where Cleve 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.

  • South Australia
    1945–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Cleve

People whose public names include Cleve, 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.

Cleve 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
#191
1885
Peak year
1951
83 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
2013
All-time count
4,506
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#4,279
1928
Peak year
1918
6 that year
First recorded
1918
Last recorded
1930
All-time count
23
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Cleve

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

CleonCletusCleoClemClementeClellClementReeveCletisClemonClemensCleteClevenClemmieCleophusCleverCleatusClentCleaveCletoCleothaClentonClevelandClevon

Names with a curve like Cleve

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

AdolphusArtieRollieDeeNelsLafayetteAlonzaCarletonLuciousLonzoBerryAlford

Sibling names for Cleve

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 Cleve

Top names of 1951, Cleve's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1885More old man namesBoys' names starting with C