Claudia
A feminine name of Latin origin meaning "lame" or "enclosure".
Name Census estimates that about 92,456 living Americans carry the first name Claudia. It is a predominantly female name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Claudia today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Claudia births was 1952 (3,383 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Claudia. 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 Claudia with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Claudia is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 760 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
92K
~ 1 in 3,707 Americans
Peak year
1952
3,383 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2002 SSA rank
#1,090
Tracked since 1880
Census
Claudia in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 189,170 people with the first name Claudia, which placed it at #294 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
#294
National first-name rank
People counted
189K
189,170 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
62.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
62.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Claudia
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudia is Hispanic at 62.2%. The next largest groups are White (31.0%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Claudia 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 Claudia at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino62.2% · 117,636
- White31.0% · 58,578
- Black or African American4.6% · 8,632
- Two or more races1.0% · 1,982
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 1,849
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 493
Gender
Gender distribution for Claudia
Out of the 128,853 babies given the name Claudia since 1880, 99.4% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Claudia as a male name
- Ranked #10,964 in 2002
- 5 male births in 2002
- Peak: 1982 (26 births)
Claudia as a female name
- Ranked #1,090 in 2024
- 225 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1952 (3,383 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claudia appears almost entirely female. Of the 189,171 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Claudia: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Claudia from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 23,199 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Claudia 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 Claudia during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Claudias live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Claudia, while Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,390 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Claudia
The name Claudia has its roots in the Latin language and originated from the Roman family name Claudius. It is derived from the Latin word "claudere," which means "to shut" or "to close." This family name can be traced back to the 4th century BC and is believed to have been given to a Roman ancestor who was born with a physical disability that affected his ability to walk properly.
The name Claudia gained widespread popularity during the Roman Empire. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the writings of the ancient Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a Vestal Virgin named Claudia Quinta in his work "Ab Urbe Condita" (From the Founding of the City). According to Livy, Claudia Quinta played a significant role in bringing the goddess Cybele's sacred stone to Rome in 204 BC.
In the Bible, the name Claudia appears in the Second Epistle to Timothy, where the Apostle Paul sends greetings to a woman named Claudia. This reference suggests that the name was also used among early Christians in the 1st century AD.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Claudia. One of the most famous was Claudia Octavia, the first wife of the Roman Emperor Nero, who lived from 40 AD to 62 AD. Another notable Claudia was Claudia Procula, the wife of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew.
In the 4th century AD, Claudia Felicitas was a Roman martyr who was executed for her Christian faith during the reign of Emperor Diocletian. Her story is recounted in the writings of Saint Ambrose and the Venerable Bede.
During the Renaissance period, Claudia Felicitas Renata, an Italian noblewoman born in 1498, was a renowned patron of the arts and a supporter of the humanist movement. She was also a prolific writer and translated several works from Greek and Latin.
In more recent times, Claudia Cardinale, an Italian actress born in 1938, gained international fame for her roles in acclaimed films such as "The Leopard" and "Once Upon a Time in the West."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Claudia
People
Claudia + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Claudia 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
Claudia: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Claudia?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 92,456 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Claudia 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 3,707 US residents.
Is Claudia a common name?
We classify Claudia as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 128,853 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Claudia most popular?
The single biggest year for Claudia was 1952, when 3,383 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Claudia is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Claudia in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 189,170 people with the name Claudia, or 62.63 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #294 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 Claudia 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 Claudia?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claudia appears almost entirely female. Of the 189,171 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Claudia?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudia is Hispanic at 62.2%. The next largest groups are White (31.0%) and Black (4.6%). 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 Claudia most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Claudia in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.2% (117,636 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 Claudia in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Claudia a female name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Claudia 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 Claudia still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Claudia 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 Claudia 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 Claudia?
You can see how many people have the name Claudia on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.