Cleo
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "glory" or "renown".
Name Census estimates that about 11,558 living Americans carry the first name Cleo. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 74.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Cleo today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cleo births was 1920 (1,399 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cleo. 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 Cleo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
12K
~ 1 in 29,655 Americans
Peak year
1920
1,399 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2024 SSA rank
#603
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cleo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 11,051 people with the first name Cleo, which placed it at #2,319 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
#2,319
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
11,051 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cleo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cleo is White at 54.8%. The next largest groups are Black (28.4%) and Hispanic (8.1%). 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 Cleo 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 Cleo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.8% · 6,051
- Black or African American28.4% · 3,144
- Hispanic or Latino8.1% · 890
- Two or more races4.3% · 479
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 327
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 160
Gender
Gender distribution for Cleo
Cleo is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 44,552 total registrations, 11,508 (25.8%) were male and 33,044 (74.2%) were female.
Cleo as a male name
- Ranked #4,717 in 2024
- 21 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (363 births)
Cleo as a female name
- Ranked #603 in 2024
- 495 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1920 (1,049 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cleo on both sides of the split. Of the 11,057 people counted with this name, 2,744 were male (24.8%) and 8,313 were female (75.2%).
Popularity
Cleo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cleo 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 11,188 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
Cleo 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 Cleo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cleos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 45 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Cleo, while Rhode Island, Nevada, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 716 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cleo
The name Cleo originated from the ancient Greek name Kleopatra, which means "glory of the father." It was a popular name among the Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt from 305 BCE to 30 BCE. The name Cleo is a shortened form of Kleopatra.
The most famous historical figure with the name Cleopatra was Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt. She was born in 69 BCE and ruled as the co-ruler of Egypt from 51 BCE until her death in 30 BCE. Cleopatra was known for her intelligence, leadership, and her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.
Another notable figure with the name Cleo was Cleo de Merode, a French dancer and courtesan who was born in 1875 and died in 1966. She was a prominent figure in the Belle Époque era of Paris and was known for her beauty and performances at the Folies Bergère.
Cleo Laine, a British jazz singer and actress, was born in 1927 and is still living. She has had a successful career spanning over seven decades and has been honored with numerous awards, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Cleo Moore was an American actress and singer who was born in 1928 and died in 1973. She was known for her roles in several film noir and Western movies in the 1950s, including "One Girl's Confession" and "Hit and Run."
Cleo Lane was a British singer and actress who was born in 1927 and died in 2017. She had a successful career in both the UK and the US, performing in various musicals and stage shows, as well as appearing on television and in films.
People
Cleo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cleo 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
Cleo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cleo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11,558 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cleo 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 29,655 US residents.
Is Cleo a common name?
We classify Cleo as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 44,552 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cleo most popular?
The single biggest year for Cleo was 1920, when 1,399 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cleo is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cleo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 11,051 people with the name Cleo, or 3.66 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,319 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 Cleo 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 Cleo?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cleo on both sides of the split. Of the 11,057 people counted with this name, 2,744 were male (24.8%) and 8,313 were female (75.2%). 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 Cleo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cleo is White at 54.8%. The next largest groups are Black (28.4%) and Hispanic (8.1%). 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 Cleo most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cleo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.8% (6,051 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 Cleo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cleo a female name?
Yes, 74.2% of people registered as Cleo 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 Cleo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cleo 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 Cleo 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 common is the name Cleo?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Cleo at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.