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Clive

#2,398 in 2025Boys' name

Cliff

Clive has been given to 3,336 babies in the U.S. since 1885. In 2025 it ranked #2,398 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2016, with 85 recorded.

Babies named Clive, 2025

1 in 58,200

Clive over time, 1880–2025

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Clive: meaning, origin, and history

Cliff

surname transfer

What Clive means

Clive means “cliff”.

Origin, language, and formation

Clive is used in English. Its origins include surname transfer.

Clive is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Clive is pronounced /ˈklaɪv/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,336 boys were recorded with the name Clive between 1885 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 85 in 2016; its best national rank was #764 in 1906.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,397 in 2020 to #2,398 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,817 in 2015 to #2,398 in 2025.

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 Clive?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 58,200
57 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 30,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#2,398
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
40,315 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Clive 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 2025 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 40,315 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Clive. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Clives were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Clive was born before 1982 — so the typical Clive is around 43 today.

Median birth year
1982
About 43 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
20.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
39.7%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,160
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 20.7% of all recorded uses (690).

Is Clive 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
−353
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−1
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−581
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.70×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
67.1%
Peak was 2016 (85)
Years since peak
9
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
20.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#764
1906

Spellings of Clive

Clive is not the most common spelling — Oliver is, with 55.7% against Clive's 0.69%.

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 Clive is used

Across 2016–2025, Clive was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 41,703 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in 100,000).

14 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 25,000
  2. 2Massachusetts1 in 33,333
  3. 3Missouri1 in 33,333
  4. 4Oregon1 in 33,333
  5. 5Texas1 in 33,333
  6. 6Illinois1 in 50,000
  7. 7Indiana1 in 50,000
  8. 8New York1 in 50,000

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.

Clive around the world

Where Clive 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
    1996–2024
    #2,444
    in 2024
  • Scotland
    1974–2013
    #687
    in 2013
  • Ireland
    1964–2025
    #829
    in 2025
  • France
    1982–2000
    #3,575
    in 2000
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #1,817
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1944–2008
    #726
    in 2008

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Clive

People whose public names include Clive, 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.

Clive by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#2,398
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 1
Best rank ever
#764
1906
Peak year
2016
85 that year
First recorded
1885
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,336
Count in 2025
57

Names similar to Clive

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

CliffClintClineClideClifftonOliveCliftonClifClintonClifordClimmieCliffordClintenCliffardCliftClimClioClimonClintinClinardClistonFiveClinnieIve

Names with a curve like Clive

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

BerkleyConleyDixonThompsonRansomHarlenHanselHamptonMaconArleyLarkinWylie

Sibling names for Clive

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 Clive

Top names of 2016, Clive's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1906Boys' names starting with C