Clancey
One of Irish etymology, indicating a descendant of a renowned warrior clan.
Name Census estimates that about 91 living Americans carry the first name Clancey. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Clancey today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clancey births was 1991 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clancey. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Clancey. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
91
~ 1 in 3,766,531 Americans
Peak year
1991
12 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2013 SSA rank
#12,487
Tracked since 1975
Census
Clancey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 234 people with the first name Clancey, which placed it at #34,758 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#34,758
National first-name rank
People counted
234
234 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clancey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clancey is White at 81.2%. The next largest groups are Black (5.1%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Clancey described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Clancey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.2% · 190
- Black or African American5.1% · 12
- Two or more races4.7% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.3% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Clancey
Clancey is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 94 total registrations, 71 (75.5%) were male and 23 (24.5%) were female.
Clancey as a male name
- Ranked #12,487 in 2013
- 5 male births in 2013
- Peak: 1995 (11 births)
Clancey as a female name
- Ranked #16,305 in 2003
- 5 female births in 2003
- Peak: 1991 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Clancey on both sides of the split. Of the 234 people counted with this name, 147 were male (62.8%) and 87 were female (37.2%).
Popularity
Clancey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clancey from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 46 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clancey by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Clancey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clancey
The name Clancey is an Anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name Ó Cloinn Tsíthigh, which means "descendant of the ancient family". It has its roots in the Gaelic language and culture of Ireland, dating back to the Middle Ages.
The name is believed to have originated from the ancient Gaelic clan system, where families and clans were identified by their lineage and ancestry. The Ó Cloinn Tsíthigh clan was one such prominent clan in Ireland, particularly in the counties of Tipperary and Limerick.
Historically, the name Clancey has been documented in various Irish annals and records, although its earliest recorded use is difficult to pinpoint precisely. One of the earliest known references to the name can be found in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history compiled in the 17th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the first name Clancey. One of the earliest recorded individuals was Clancey O'Clancey (c. 1470-1540), a prominent Irish chieftain and member of the O'Clancey clan in County Tipperary. Another notable figure was Clancey O'Donnell (c. 1560-1628), a Irish military leader and member of the powerful O'Donnell clan.
In more recent times, Clancey Sigsbee (1858-1928) was a celebrated American naval officer who served in the Spanish-American War and commanded the battleship USS Maine. Clancey Dougall (1904-1993) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and the Scottish national team in the 1920s and 1930s.
Another notable bearer of the name was Clancey Doyle (1916-1985), an American jazz musician and bandleader who was active in the swing era of the 1930s and 1940s. Clancey Watts (1928-2004) was an English character actor known for his roles in films such as "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Shining".
While the name Clancey has Irish roots, it has since been adopted and used by individuals of various ethnic backgrounds, particularly in English-speaking countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
People
Clancey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clancey as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Clancey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clancey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 91 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clancey going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 3,766,531 US residents.
Is Clancey a common name?
We classify Clancey as "Very Rare". It ranks above 63.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 94 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clancey most popular?
The single biggest year for Clancey was 1991, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clancey is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clancey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 234 people with the name Clancey, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,758 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Clancey in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Clancey?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Clancey on both sides of the split. Of the 234 people counted with this name, 147 were male (62.8%) and 87 were female (37.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Clancey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clancey is White at 81.2%. The next largest groups are Black (5.1%) and Two or More Races (4.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Clancey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clancey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.2% (190 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Clancey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clancey a male name?
Yes, 75.5% of people registered as Clancey in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Clancey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clancey in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Clancey can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Clancey?
You can see how many people have the name Clancey on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.