Clancy
A variant of the Irish surname Clancy, derived from the word "lannach" meaning "martial, warlike."
Name Census estimates that about 1,764 living Americans carry the first name Clancy. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 70.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Clancy today is around 31 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clancy births was 2024 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clancy. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Clancy with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 194,305 Americans
Peak year
2024
50 babies that year
Average age
31
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,220
Tracked since 1914
Census
Clancy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,576 people with the first name Clancy, which placed it at #9,002 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
#9,002
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,576 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clancy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clancy is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Clancy 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 Clancy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 1,283
- Black or African American5.7% · 90
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 82
- Two or more races4.1% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 33
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Clancy
Clancy is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,968 total registrations, 1,395 (70.9%) were male and 573 (29.1%) were female.
Clancy as a male name
- Ranked #3,220 in 2024
- 37 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (37 births)
Clancy as a female name
- Ranked #8,027 in 2024
- 13 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (24 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Clancy on both sides of the split. Of the 1,573 people counted with this name, 1,015 were male (64.5%) and 558 were female (35.5%).
Popularity
Clancy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clancy from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 356 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Clancy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clancy 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 Clancy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clancys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Utah recorded the most babies named Clancy, while Utah, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 18 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clancy
The name Clancy is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Clónsigh, which is derived from the Gaelic word 'cluain' meaning 'meadow' or 'pasture'. The name originated in Ireland, specifically in the regions of County Clare and County Tipperary, where it was a prominent surname among families of Gaelic Irish descent.
The earliest known historical reference to the name Clancy can be found in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history compiled in the early 17th century. The annals mention several notable figures bearing the surname Clancy, including Diarmaid Ó Clónsigh, a chieftain of the Dál gCais dynasty who lived in the 10th century.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Clancy was Clancy of Aughrim, a 12th-century Irish poet and storyteller. His collection of tales and poems, known as the "Book of Clancy", is an important source of Irish folklore and mythology.
Throughout history, several notable individuals bore the name Clancy. One of the most famous was Clancy Brothers, a renowned Irish folk music group active in the 1950s and 1960s. The group consisted of brothers Tom Clancy (1924-1990), Patrick Clancy (1922-1998), Bobby Clancy (1927-2002), and Liam Clancy (1935-2009).
Another prominent figure was Clancy Eccles (1918-1997), a Jamaican singer-songwriter and record producer who helped popularize ska and reggae music. His hit songs, such as "Fattie Burt" and "Jamaican Rocksteady", became classics in the genre.
In literature, Clancy Sigal (1926-2017) was an American novelist and screenwriter known for his works exploring social and political themes, including the acclaimed novel "Going Away" (1961).
The name Clancy was also borne by Clancy Carlile (1888-1968), an Australian aviator and pioneer of early commercial aviation. He established several airlines and air routes in Australia and New Zealand during the early 20th century.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who carried the name Clancy, a name with deep roots in Irish culture and a rich legacy spanning centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Clancy
People
Clancy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clancy 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
Clancy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clancy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,764 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clancy 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 194,305 US residents.
Is Clancy a common name?
We classify Clancy as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,968 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clancy most popular?
The single biggest year for Clancy was 2024, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clancy is about 31 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clancy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,576 people with the name Clancy, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,002 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 Clancy 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 Clancy?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Clancy on both sides of the split. Of the 1,573 people counted with this name, 1,015 were male (64.5%) and 558 were female (35.5%). 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 Clancy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clancy is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Black (5.7%) and Hispanic (5.2%). 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 Clancy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clancy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (1,283 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 Clancy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clancy a male name?
Yes, 70.9% of people registered as Clancy 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 Clancy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clancy 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 Clancy 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 Clancy?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.