Claudine
A feminine name of French origin meaning "lame" or "enclosure for lambs".
Name Census estimates that about 5,146 living Americans carry the first name Claudine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Claudine today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Claudine births was 1970 (442 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Claudine. 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 Claudine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.1K
~ 1 in 66,606 Americans
Peak year
1970
442 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
1928 SSA rank
#4,255
Tracked since 1880
Census
Claudine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 8,026 people with the first name Claudine, which placed it at #2,868 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
#2,868
National first-name rank
People counted
8.0K
8,026 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
53.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Claudine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudine is White at 53.1%. The next largest groups are Black (30.0%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Claudine 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 Claudine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White53.1% · 4,259
- Black or African American30.0% · 2,406
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 524
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.3% · 504
- Two or more races3.0% · 244
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 89
Gender
Gender distribution for Claudine
Out of the 11,337 babies given the name Claudine since 1880, 99.9% 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.
Claudine as a male name
- Ranked #4,255 in 1928
- 5 male births in 1928
- Peak: 1919 (5 births)
Claudine as a female name
- Ranked #13,801 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1970 (442 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claudine appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,026 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Claudine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Claudine from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,880 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
Claudine 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 Claudine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Claudines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 37 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Claudine, while Nebraska, South Carolina, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 196 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Claudine
The name Claudine has its origins in the Late Latin name Claudius, which is derived from the Roman family name Claudius. The Claudii were an ancient Roman patrician family that produced several Roman emperors, including Claudius I, who reigned from 41 to 54 AD.
The name Claudius is believed to have originated from the Latin word claudus, meaning "lame" or "crippled." This suggests that the first person to bear this name may have had a physical disability. The feminine form of Claudius is Claudia, and Claudine is a French diminutive of Claudia.
Claudine first emerged as a name during the Middle Ages in France. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is Claudine de Tencin, a French novelist and salonist who lived from 1682 to 1749. She was known for her salons in Paris, which attracted many prominent figures of the time.
Another notable figure with the name Claudine was Claudine de Saint-Geniès, a French noblewoman and memoirist who lived from 1556 to 1636. Her memoirs, published in the 17th century, provided insights into the lives of aristocratic women during the French Wars of Religion.
In the realm of literature, Claudine is the protagonist in a series of novels by the French author Colette, published between 1900 and 1903. These semi-autobiographical novels, known as the "Claudine" series, explore themes of adolescence, sexuality, and societal expectations for women.
One of the most famous bearers of the name Claudine was the French actress Claudine Auger, who was born in 1941 and is best known for her role as Domino Derval in the 1965 James Bond film "Thunderball."
Another notable Claudine was Claudine Longet, a French singer and actress born in 1942. She gained fame in the 1960s for her recordings and appearances on television shows such as "The Andy Williams Show."
While the name Claudine has its roots in ancient Roman history, it has been used throughout various periods and cultures, particularly in France, where it gained popularity and has been associated with notable figures in literature, entertainment, and society.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Claudine
People
Claudine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Claudine 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
Claudine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Claudine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,146 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Claudine 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 66,606 US residents.
Is Claudine a common name?
We classify Claudine as "Rare". It ranks above 96.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,337 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Claudine most popular?
The single biggest year for Claudine was 1970, when 442 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Claudine is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Claudine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 8,026 people with the name Claudine, or 2.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,868 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 Claudine 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 Claudine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claudine appears almost entirely female. Of the 8,026 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Claudine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudine is White at 53.1%. The next largest groups are Black (30.0%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Claudine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Claudine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.1% (4,259 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 Claudine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Claudine a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Claudine 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 Claudine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Claudine 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 Claudine 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 Claudine?
You can see how many Americans are named Claudine on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.