Claud
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "lame" or "enclosing".
Name Census estimates that about 1,824 living Americans carry the first name Claud. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Claud today is around 76 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Claud births was 1919 (350 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Claud. 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 Claud is about 76 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Clauds were born before 1960.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 187,914 Americans
Peak year
1919
350 babies that year
Average age
76
years old
2010 SSA rank
#4,800
Tracked since 1880
Census
Claud in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,726 people with the first name Claud, which placed it at #8,406 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
#8,406
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,726 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Claud
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claud is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (18.3%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Claud 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 Claud at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.5% · 1,286
- Black or African American18.3% · 316
- Two or more races3.8% · 65
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 28
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 6
Gender
Gender distribution for Claud
Out of the 10,940 babies given the name Claud since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Claud as a male name
- Ranked #12,592 in 2010
- 5 male births in 2010
- Peak: 1919 (344 births)
Claud as a female name
- Ranked #4,800 in 1943
- 5 female births in 1943
- Peak: 1930 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claud leans strongly male. 1,684 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 37 female bearers (2.1%).
Popularity
Claud: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Claud from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 2,742 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
Claud 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 Claud during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clauds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma recorded the most babies named Claud, while Iowa, Pennsylvania, Kansas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 282 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Claud
The name Claud has its origins in the ancient Roman world, derived from the Latin name Claudius. It is believed to have come from the Roman family name Claudius, which is thought to be associated with the Latin word "claudus," meaning "lame" or "crippled." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone with a physical disability or limp.
The name Claudius was borne by several prominent figures in Roman history, including several Roman emperors. The most famous of these was Claudius I, who ruled from 41 to 54 AD. He is known for his conquests in Britain and for the construction of important public works in Rome, such as the Claudian aqueduct.
In the early days of Christianity, the name Claudius was also adopted by some early saints and martyrs. One notable figure was Saint Claudius of Turin, a 9th-century bishop and writer who is remembered for his opposition to the veneration of images in churches.
The name Claud emerged as a variant of Claudius during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Claud is from the 12th century, when it was used by Claud de Bauffremont, a French nobleman and crusader.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the name Claud. These include Claud Lorrain, a 17th-century French painter known for his landscape paintings (1600-1682); Claud Frollo, a fictional character in Victor Hugo's novel "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame"; Claud Rains, an English actor who appeared in numerous Hollywood films (1889-1967); Claud Cockburn, an Irish novelist and journalist (1904-1981); and Claud Levi-Strauss, a French anthropologist and ethnologist known for his work on structural anthropology (1908-2009).
While the name Claud has declined in popularity in recent times, it retains a rich historical legacy that traces back to ancient Rome and the influential figures who bore this name throughout the centuries.
People
Claud + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Claud 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
Claud: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Claud?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,824 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Claud 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 187,914 US residents.
Is Claud a common name?
We classify Claud as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,940 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Claud most popular?
The single biggest year for Claud was 1919, when 350 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Claud is about 76 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Claud in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,726 people with the name Claud, or 0.57 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,406 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 Claud 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 Claud?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claud leans strongly male. 1,684 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 37 female bearers (2.1%). 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 Claud?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claud is White at 74.5%. The next largest groups are Black (18.3%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Claud most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Claud in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.5% (1,286 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 Claud in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Claud a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Claud 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 Claud still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Claud 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 Claud 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 Claud?
See how many Americans are named Claud on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.