Claire
given name · Latin script
Meaning, in English: A small enclosed pond used for gathering and greening oysters
A female name· listed as female by the registers that count names by sex
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 54 countries · latest register: SSA, 2025
/klɛəɹ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Claire is a female given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Norway it is the 37th most common given name.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 462(inferred from the name graph)
- IEIreland≈1 in 767
- AUAustralia≈1 in 793
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Claire itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- #257 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 593 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 462 (inferred from the name graph)
163,948 people, 2020
of 15M given names, spellings grouped
recorded for this name
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts
(measured from records)Locally spelled Kari in NO Norway, FI Finland and Carrie in US United States.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)From Latin clara, meaning 'clear, bright, famous'.
Cited for this meaning 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 15 languages in the etymology graph.
How Claire is read
(measured from records)Claire is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.
- English65%
A small enclosed pond used for gathering and greening oysters.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
- French25%
From Latin clara, meaning 'clear, bright, famous'.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
From Latin clarus, meaning “clear”/“bright”.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
feminine singular of clair
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Du latin clarus «clair, illustre»; fêtée le 11 août (sainte Claire d’Assise).
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
Du latin clarus, « claire, illustre »; fête le 11 août.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Claire, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Claire counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #133 | 163,948 | 1 in 2K | 163K | Carrie | 593 |
| GB United Kingdom | #42 | ≈140,000 est. | ≈1 in 462 | 7 | Claire | 399 |
| FI Finland | #57 | 41,301as Kari | 1 in 135 | 57K | Kari | 68 |
| AU Australia | #70 | ≈32,000 est. | ≈1 in 793 | 117 | Claire | 281 |
| PH Philippines | #371 | ≈31,000 est. | ≈1 in 3.6K | — | Claire | 155 |
| NO Norway | #37 | 22,263as Kari | 1 in 246 | 72K | Kari | 114 |
| IE Ireland | #49 | ≈6,800 est. | ≈1 in 767 | — | Claire | 161 |
163,948 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020, counting the spelling claire. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); SSB PxWebApi — Persons/Last names by year (StatBank tables 10501/12891); SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Leslie Caronb. 1931FRnot in their usual nameFrench and American actress and dancer (born 1931)
- Elinor Ostromb. 1933USnot in their usual nameAmerican political economist (1933-2012)
- Françoise Barré-Sinoussib. 1947FRnot in their usual nameFrench virologist and Nobel laureate, co-discoverer of HIV
- Amélie Nothombb. 1967BEnot in their usual nameBelgian Francophone writer (born 1966)
- Jessica Bielb. 1982USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress (born 1982)
- Claire Foyb. 1984GBBritish actress
- Claire Holtb. 1988AUAustralian actress (born 1988)
- Bridgit Mendlerb. 1992USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress and singer
- Becky Hillb. 1994GBnot in their usual nameBritish singer (born 1994)
- Karoline Leavittb. 1997USnot in their usual nameAmerican writer and political aide (born 1997)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)104 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 54 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 163K | #340 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 3.5K | — |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 722 | #932 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 650 | #340 |
| NO Norway | SSB — Navnesøk (name-search service, living population) | — | 504 | #2,485 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 136 | — |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 2022 | 80 | #86 |
| AU Australia | AU state BDM — consolidated top baby names (NSW + SA + QLD) | 2025 | 60 | #82 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 2025 | 60 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2023 | 60 | — |
| AU Australia | Australian national given names (aggregated state BDM) | 2017 | 30 | — |
| AU Australia | SA BDM — Popular baby names South Australia (1944–present) | 2021 | 26 | — |
Reference works 4
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Claire a male or female name?
- Claire is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), France (INSEE, 2024), Netherlands (Meertens NVB) and Brazil (IBGE, 2022), among others.
- What are other forms of the name Claire?
- In the etymology graph, Clara, Clare and Kiara are forms of the same name in other languages.
- Where does the name Claire come from?
- From Latin clara, meaning 'clear, bright, famous'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- In which country does Claire have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 164 thousand people named Claire, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled carrie.
- What does the name Claire mean?
- In English, A small enclosed pond used for gathering and greening oysters.
- How common is the name Claire?
- In the United States, the national register counted 163,948 people named Claire in 2020, about 1 in 2.0 thousand residents.
- How common is Claire compared with other names?
- In the United States, Claire is the 133rd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Claire?
- A machine transcription gives /klɛəɹ/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Claire?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/claireThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Claire” — the 133rd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.