Clarance
A masculine name derived from the Latin "Clarus" meaning "bright" or "clear".
Name Census estimates that about 1,163 living Americans carry the first name Clarance. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Clarance today is around 71 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clarance births was 1926 (109 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clarance. 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
- • The typical person named Clarance is about 71 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Clarances were born before 1965.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 294,716 Americans
Peak year
1926
109 babies that year
Average age
71
years old
2009 SSA rank
#10,068
Tracked since 1880
Census
Clarance in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 789 people with the first name Clarance, which placed it at #14,812 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
#14,812
National first-name rank
People counted
789
789 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
48.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clarance
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clarance is Black at 48.7%. The next largest groups are White (43.0%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Clarance 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 Clarance at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American48.7% · 384
- White43.0% · 339
- Two or more races2.8% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 13
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 13
Popularity
Clarance: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clarance from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 928 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clarance 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 Clarance during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clarances live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Alabama recorded the most babies named Clarance, while Kansas, Illinois, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 81 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clarance
The name Clarance has its origins in the Latin language, deriving from the Roman family name Claudius. The name Claudius itself is believed to come from the Latin word "claudus," meaning "lame" or "crippled." The earliest known usage of the name Clarance can be traced back to the Middle Ages, around the 11th or 12th century.
In the early centuries of its existence, the name Clarance was primarily associated with members of the nobility and upper classes. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Clarance of Hauteville, a Norman knight who fought in the First Crusade in the late 11th century.
During the Middle Ages, the name Clarance also gained popularity among the royal families of Europe. One notable figure was Clarance, Duke of Calabria, who lived in the late 14th century and was a member of the Angevin dynasty that ruled parts of southern Italy and France.
As the name spread across Europe, it underwent various spellings and variations, including Clarence, Clarens, and Clarenze. In England, the name gained prominence with the birth of Lionel of Antwerp, Duke of Clarence, in 1338. He was the third son of King Edward III and a prominent figure during the Hundred Years' War.
Another famous bearer of the name was George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, who lived from 1449 to 1478. He was the younger brother of King Edward IV of England and was executed for allegedly plotting against his brother.
Beyond the royal and noble circles, the name Clarance also found its way into the literary world. One of the most notable examples is the character of Clarance in William Shakespeare's play "Richard III," written around 1592.
In the realm of religion, the name Clarance has been associated with several prominent figures throughout history. One such individual was Clarance of Arles, a 5th-century bishop and saint revered in parts of France and Italy.
Other notable individuals with the name Clarance include Clarance Darrow (1857-1938), a renowned American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Clarance Birdseye (1886-1956), an American inventor best known for developing the process of flash freezing food.
People
Clarance + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clarance 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
Clarance: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clarance?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,163 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clarance 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 294,716 US residents.
Is Clarance a common name?
We classify Clarance as "Rare". It ranks above 91.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,078 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clarance most popular?
The single biggest year for Clarance was 1926, when 109 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clarance is about 71 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clarance in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 789 people with the name Clarance, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,812 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 Clarance 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 Clarance?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clarance leans strongly male. 776 people counted with this name were male (98.6%), compared with 11 female bearers (1.4%). 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 Clarance?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clarance is Black at 48.7%. The next largest groups are White (43.0%) and Two or More Races (2.8%). 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 Clarance most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Clarance in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.7% (384 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 Clarance in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clarance a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Clarance 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 Clarance still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clarance 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 Clarance 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 are called Clarance?
See how many Americans are named Clarance on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.