Cleon
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "glory" or "illustrious".
Name Census estimates that about 1,380 living Americans carry the first name Cleon. It is a predominantly male name (94.1% of registrations). The average person named Cleon today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cleon births was 1921 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cleon. 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 Cleon with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 248,373 Americans
Peak year
1921
86 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,740
Tracked since 1884
Census
Cleon in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,434 people with the first name Cleon, which placed it at #9,614 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
#9,614
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,434 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cleon
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cleon is Black at 53.8%. The next largest groups are White (38.7%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Cleon 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 Cleon at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.8% · 772
- White38.7% · 555
- Two or more races3.0% · 43
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 26
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 18
Gender
Gender distribution for Cleon
Cleon leans heavily male at 94.1% of total registrations, but 189 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cleon as a male name
- Ranked #9,123 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (75 births)
Cleon as a female name
- Ranked #4,740 in 1942
- 5 female births in 1942
- Peak: 1917 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cleon leans strongly male. 1,380 people counted with this name were male (96.2%), compared with 55 female bearers (3.8%).
Popularity
Cleon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cleon 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 634 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
Cleon 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 Cleon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cleons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Cleon, while Virginia, South Carolina, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cleon
The name Cleon has its origins in Ancient Greek, deriving from the words "kleos" meaning "glory" and "on" meaning "being". It was a popular name among the ancient Greeks, particularly in the city-states of Athens and Corinth.
One of the earliest known figures to bear the name Cleon was an Athenian statesman and general who lived during the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. He was a prominent leader of the democratic faction in Athens and a vocal critic of the aristocratic oligarchs. Cleon played a significant role in the decision to execute the entire male population of the island of Melos in 416 BC, an act that was widely condemned even in ancient times.
In Greek mythology, Cleon was also the name of one of the sons of Priam, the legendary king of Troy. According to Homer's Iliad, Cleon was killed during the Trojan War by the Greek hero Diomedes.
During the Hellenistic period, the name Cleon gained popularity among the Macedonian ruling class. One of the most famous figures of this era with the name was Cleon of Sicyon, a tyrant who ruled the city-state of Sicyon in the 3rd century BC. He was known for his extravagant lifestyle and patronage of the arts.
In the Roman era, the name Cleon was sometimes Latinized as "Cleonius" or "Cleonas". A notable figure with this name was Cleonius of Sicyon, a Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 2nd century AD and studied under the renowned Platonist Nicomachus of Gerasa.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the name Cleon remained relatively rare in Europe, although it did appear occasionally in scholarly circles as a nod to its classical origins. One notable bearer of the name was Cleon of Methoni, a 13th-century Greek scholar and diplomat who served as an interpreter for the Byzantine Empire.
In more recent times, the name Cleon has been used sporadically, often as a tribute to its ancient Greek roots. Some notable individuals with this first name include Cleon Jones (born 1942), an American baseball player who played for the New York Mets, and Cleon Daskalakis (born 1973), an American mathematician and computer scientist.
People
Cleon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cleon 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
Cleon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cleon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,380 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cleon 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 248,373 US residents.
Is Cleon a common name?
We classify Cleon as "Rare". It ranks above 92% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,182 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cleon most popular?
The single biggest year for Cleon was 1921, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cleon is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cleon in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,434 people with the name Cleon, or 0.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,614 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 Cleon 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 Cleon?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cleon leans strongly male. 1,380 people counted with this name were male (96.2%), compared with 55 female bearers (3.8%). 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 Cleon?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cleon is Black at 53.8%. The next largest groups are White (38.7%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Cleon most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Cleon in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.8% (772 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 Cleon in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cleon a male name?
Yes, 94.1% of people registered as Cleon 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 Cleon still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cleon 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 Cleon 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 have Cleon as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Cleon on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.