Clifford
One who lives on a cliff or hillside.
Name Census estimates that about 87,218 living Americans carry the first name Clifford. It is a predominantly male name (98.9% of registrations). The average person named Clifford today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clifford births was 1925 (3,473 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clifford. 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 Clifford with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Clifford is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 2,019 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Clifford have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
87K
~ 1 in 3,930 Americans
Peak year
1925
3,473 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,340
Tracked since 1880
Census
Clifford in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 78,911 people with the first name Clifford, which placed it at #668 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
#668
National first-name rank
People counted
79K
78,911 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
26.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clifford
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clifford is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (17.0%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Clifford 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 Clifford at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.2% · 58,590
- Black or African American17.0% · 13,393
- Two or more races3.1% · 2,445
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 1,839
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 1,670
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 974
Gender
Gender distribution for Clifford
Clifford leans heavily male at 98.9% of total registrations, but 2,019 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Clifford as a male name
- Ranked #1,340 in 2024
- 142 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1925 (3,424 births)
Clifford as a female name
- Ranked #10,500 in 1991
- 7 female births in 1991
- Peak: 1917 (58 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clifford appears almost entirely male. Of the 78,907 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Clifford: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clifford 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 31,688 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
Clifford 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 Clifford during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cliffords live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Texas recorded the most babies named Clifford, while Nevada, Alaska, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,476 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clifford
The name Clifford is a masculine given name of English origin, derived from the Old English elements clif, meaning "cliff or slope," and ford, meaning "a shallow place for crossing a river." The name was first used in reference to someone who lived near a cliff or ford, reflecting the geographical features of the region.
The earliest known record of the name Clifford dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a surname. During the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity and was used as a given name by members of the noble Clifford family, who held lands in Herefordshire and Yorkshire.
One of the earliest historical references to the name Clifford can be found in the 13th century, when Roger de Clifford, born around 1221, served as a prominent military leader and fought in the Barons' War against King Henry III. Later, in the 14th century, Roger de Clifford, born around 1333, was a distinguished English nobleman and soldier who fought in the Hundred Years' War.
Another notable figure with the name Clifford was Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1630-1673), an English politician and courtier who served as Lord Treasurer under King Charles II. In the realm of literature, the name is associated with the poet and writer Clifford Dyment (1909-1975), known for his works exploring the Canadian wilderness.
In the field of science, Clifford Truesdell (1919-2000) was an American mathematician and historian of science, renowned for his contributions to the study of rational mechanics and thermodynamics. Additionally, Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) was an influential American anthropologist who made significant contributions to the development of symbolic anthropology and the interpretation of culture.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have carried the name Clifford throughout history, each leaving their mark in various fields and disciplines.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Clifford
People
Clifford + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clifford 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
Clifford: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clifford?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 87,218 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clifford 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 3,930 US residents.
Is Clifford a common name?
We classify Clifford 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, 190,128 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clifford most popular?
The single biggest year for Clifford was 1925, when 3,473 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clifford is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clifford in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 78,911 people with the name Clifford, or 26.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #668 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 Clifford 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 Clifford?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clifford appears almost entirely male. Of the 78,907 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Clifford?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clifford is White at 74.2%. The next largest groups are Black (17.0%) and Two or More Races (3.1%). 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 Clifford most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clifford in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.2% (58,590 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 Clifford in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clifford a male name?
Yes, 98.9% of people registered as Clifford 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 Clifford still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clifford 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 Clifford 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 Clifford?
You can see how many people share the name Clifford on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.