Claudius
A masculine name of Latin origin meaning "lame".
Name Census estimates that about 437 living Americans carry the first name Claudius. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Claudius today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Claudius births was 1916 (23 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Claudius. 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 Claudius with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
437
~ 1 in 784,335 Americans
Peak year
1916
23 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2019 SSA rank
#12,518
Tracked since 1890
Census
Claudius in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 782 people with the first name Claudius, which placed it at #14,896 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
#14,896
National first-name rank
People counted
782
782 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
65.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Claudius
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudius is Black at 65.2%. The next largest groups are White (25.1%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Claudius 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 Claudius at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American65.2% · 510
- White25.1% · 196
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 20
- Two or more races2.3% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 6
Popularity
Claudius: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Claudius from the 1890s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 147 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
Claudius 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 Claudius during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Claudius' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Claudius
The name Claudius is a Roman family name that originated from the Latin word "claudere", meaning "to close" or "to limp". It is believed to have been derived from an ancestor who had a physical disability or a limp. The name first appeared in ancient Roman history during the 3rd century BC.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Claudius is from the ancient Roman historian Livy, who mentioned a Claudius Pulcher in his work "Ab Urbe Condita" (From the Founding of the City). The name gained prominence during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius (10 BC - 54 AD), who was the fourth emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty.
In ancient Roman literature, the name Claudius appears in various works, including those of Pliny the Elder, Tacitus, and Suetonius. The name was also mentioned in the Bible, specifically in the Book of Acts, where a Roman governor named Claudius Lysias is featured.
Over the course of history, several notable individuals have borne the name Claudius. One of the most famous was the Roman emperor Claudius (10 BC - 54 AD), who ruled from 41 AD to 54 AD and oversaw the conquest of Britain. Another prominent figure was the Roman poet Claudius Claudianus (c. 370 - c. 408 AD), known for his works in Latin.
In the Middle Ages, the name Claudius was used by several religious figures, including Saint Claudius (c. 602 - 695), a bishop of Besançon, and Pope Claudius I (c. 795 - 827), who served as the head of the Catholic Church from 815 to 827 AD. During the Renaissance period, the name was associated with the Italian painter and architect Claudius Parmigiano (1504 - 1540).
Other notable individuals with the name Claudius include the French mathematician and philosopher Claudius Ptolemaeus (c. 90 - c. 168 AD), the German philosopher Claudius Galen (c. 129 - c. 199 AD), and the English poet Claudius Tiberius Nero (37 AD - 68 AD).
People
Claudius + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Claudius 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
Claudius: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Claudius?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 437 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Claudius 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 784,335 US residents.
Is Claudius a common name?
We classify Claudius as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 922 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Claudius most popular?
The single biggest year for Claudius was 1916, when 23 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Claudius is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Claudius in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 782 people with the name Claudius, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,896 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 Claudius 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 Claudius?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claudius leans strongly male. 765 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 13 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Claudius?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudius is Black at 65.2%. The next largest groups are White (25.1%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Claudius most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Claudius in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.2% (510 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 Claudius in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Claudius a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Claudius 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 Claudius still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Claudius 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 Claudius 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 Claudius?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.