Clever
#12,402 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Clever has been given to 141 babies in the U.S. since 2003. In 2025 it ranked #12,402 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2020, with 12 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 88% boys, 12% girls all-time.
Babies named Clever, 2025
1 in 663,000
Clever over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Clever over time
In 2025, Clever went to 67% girls and 33% boys.
A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.
How common is Clever?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 663,000
- 5 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 342,000
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #12,402
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 459,581 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Clever sits on the popularity scale
Chance at least one other child shares the name
If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.
Put another way: gather 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Clever. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Clevers were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Clever was born before 2016 — so the typical Clever is around 9 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 41.9% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 100.0%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 124
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 41.9% of all recorded uses (52).
Is Clever 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
- −1,207
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −5,698
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −2,656
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.71×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 41.7%
- Peak was 2020 (12)
- Years since peak
- 5
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Volatile
- 31.0% average annual change
Spellings of Clever
Clever is not the most common spelling — Oliver is, with 90.6% against Clever's 0.04%.
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.
Clever by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Clever
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Clever
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.