Claretta
Feminine name from the Latin "clarus" meaning "bright" or "clear".
Name Census estimates that about 329 living Americans carry the first name Claretta. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Claretta today is around 73 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Claretta births was 1943 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Claretta. 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 Claretta is about 73 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Clarettas were born before 1963.
People living today
329
~ 1 in 1,041,806 Americans
Peak year
1943
30 babies that year
Average age
73
years old
1982 SSA rank
#10,810
Tracked since 1902
Census
Claretta in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 446 people with the first name Claretta, which placed it at #22,352 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
#22,352
National first-name rank
People counted
446
446 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
65.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Claretta
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claretta is Black at 65.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.5%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Claretta 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 Claretta at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American65.5% · 292
- White28.5% · 127
- Two or more races3.1% · 14
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 2
Popularity
Claretta: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Claretta from the 1900s through to the 1980s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 202 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Claretta 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 Claretta during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clarettas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Claretta
The name Claretta is a feminine given name of Italian origin, derived from the Latin name Clareta, which itself is a diminutive form of the name Clara. The name Clara comes from the Latin word "clarus," meaning "bright" or "clear." The earliest recorded use of the name Claretta dates back to the 13th century in Italy.
During the Middle Ages, the name Claretta was particularly popular among Italian noble families. One notable historical figure who bore this name was Claretta Petrucci (1466-1518), an Italian noblewoman and the wife of Pandolfo Petrucci, the lord of Siena. She played an influential role in the political and cultural life of Siena during the Renaissance period.
In the 16th century, Claretta Strozzi (1508-1567) was an Italian noblewoman and poet from Florence. She was known for her literary works and her participation in the intellectual circles of her time.
Another notable Claretta was Claretta Grivello (1745-1828), an Italian painter and engraver from Turin. She was renowned for her portraits and religious paintings, which were exhibited in various Italian cities.
In the 19th century, Claretta Michelangeli (1843-1919) was an Italian opera singer and vocal teacher. She performed in several prestigious opera houses across Europe and was highly regarded for her interpretations of Verdi's works.
Claretta Petacci (1912-1945) was an Italian aristocrat and the mistress of Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy. She was executed alongside Mussolini in 1945 during the final days of World War II.
While the name Claretta has its roots in Italian history and culture, it has also been used in other parts of the world over time, though its usage has remained relatively limited compared to other Italian names.
People
Claretta + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Claretta 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
Claretta: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Claretta?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 329 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Claretta 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 1,041,806 US residents.
Is Claretta a common name?
We classify Claretta as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 924 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Claretta most popular?
The single biggest year for Claretta was 1943, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Claretta is about 73 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Claretta in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 446 people with the name Claretta, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,352 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 Claretta 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 Claretta?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claretta appears almost entirely female. Of the 454 people counted with this name, 99.6% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Claretta?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claretta is Black at 65.5%. The next largest groups are White (28.5%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Claretta most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Claretta in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.5% (292 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 Claretta in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Claretta a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Claretta in the SSA data are female. 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 Claretta still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Claretta 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 Claretta 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 Americans are named Claretta?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.