Claire

given name · Latin script

Meaning, in English: A small enclosed pond used for gathering and greening oysters

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/klɛəɹ/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Claire is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Norway it is the 37th most common given name.

rarermore common
  • GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 462(inferred from the name graph)
  • IEIreland≈1 in 767
  • USUnited States1 in 2K

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.

China (inferred from the name graph)

≈1,100,000 named Carrie, est.

#257 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

5 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
593 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 462 (inferred from the name graph)

United Kingdom, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

CarrieLatin(measured from records)
קליירHebrew(measured from records)
แคล์รThai(measured from records)
ΚλαιρGreek(measured from records)
캐리Hangul(measured from records)

3 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Carrie in US United States, CN China, Kari in NO Norway, FI Finland and קלייר in FR France.

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'.

Sources 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.

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.

Where Claire is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
CN China—≈1,100,000 est.≈1 in 1.3K—Carrie82
US United States#133163,9481 in 2K163KCarrie593
GB United Kingdom#42≈140,000 est.≈1 in 4627Claire399
FR France—≈120,000 est.≈1 in 546160Kקלייר19
FI Finland#5741,301as Kari1 in 13557KKari68
NO Norway#3722,263as Kari1 in 24672KKari114
IE Ireland#49≈6,800 est.≈1 in 767—Claire161

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); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); 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).

Other names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Claire is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French given name19 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Philippines, United Kingdom

    Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Clairé, Claîre, Cĺaire, C'Laire, Claīre

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Clairé, Clairê

  • Polish given name46 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United Kingdom, United States, Poland, Russia

    Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

    Also written Clare, Клер, Kler, Clerc, Клёр

  • Indonesian given name4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, United Kingdom

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

    Also written Çlaire

75 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Notable people with this name(measured from records)

19201940196019802000Leslie Caron, b. 1931Elinor Ostrom, b. 1933Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, b. 1947Amélie Nothomb, b. 1967Jessica Biel, b. 1982Claire Foy, b. 1984Claire Holt, b. 1988Bridgit Mendler, b. 1992Becky Hill, b. 1994Karoline Leavitt, b. 1997
  • 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)

FormalDear Colleague,
InformalHello,

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 104 sources across 54 countries.

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 in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
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?
Mondonomo estimates about 1.1 million people named Carrie in China, more than in any other country we hold.
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 Norway, Claire is the 37th most common given name of 25,788 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.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/claire

The 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 37th most common given name in Norway. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Claire parses inside a full name →