Clinton
A masculine name of English origin meaning "place on a hill".
Name Census estimates that about 66,583 living Americans carry the first name Clinton. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Clinton today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clinton births was 1981 (2,222 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clinton. 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 Clinton with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Clinton is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 438 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1980s, recent registration numbers for Clinton have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
67K
~ 1 in 5,148 Americans
Peak year
1981
2,222 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,933
Tracked since 1880
Census
Clinton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 54,830 people with the first name Clinton, which placed it at #843 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
#843
National first-name rank
People counted
55K
54,830 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
18.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clinton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clinton is White at 75.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.6%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Clinton 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 Clinton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.0% · 41,121
- Black or African American16.6% · 9,098
- Two or more races3.7% · 2,006
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 1,159
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 731
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 715
Gender
Gender distribution for Clinton
Out of the 97,911 babies given the name Clinton since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Clinton as a male name
- Ranked #1,933 in 2024
- 81 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1981 (2,206 births)
Clinton as a female name
- Ranked #13,728 in 1992
- 5 female births in 1992
- Peak: 1984 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clinton appears almost entirely male. Of the 54,834 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Clinton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clinton from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 17,645 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clinton 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 Clinton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clintons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Clinton, while Delaware, Vermont, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,790 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clinton
The name Clinton is an English given name derived from the Old English words "clyne" meaning valley and "tun" meaning town or settlement. It originated as a place name referring to a town situated in a valley.
Clinton can be traced back to the 11th century in England, where it was first recorded as a surname in the Domesday Book of 1086. The earliest known use of Clinton as a first name dates back to the 13th century.
In medieval times, the name Clinton was associated with nobility and landed gentry, as it was often borne by members of the aristocratic Clinton family who held lands and titles in various parts of England, particularly in Warwickshire and Lincolnshire.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Clinton was Geoffrey de Clinton, who was born around 1050 and served as Lord Chancellor of England and Lord Chamberlain to King Henry I in the 12th century.
Over the centuries, several notable figures have borne the name Clinton, including:
1. Sir Henry Clinton (1738-1795), a British army officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of British forces during the American Revolutionary War.
2. DeWitt Clinton (1769-1828), an American politician and naturalist who served as the 6th Governor of New York and was a driving force behind the construction of the Erie Canal.
3. Sir Henry Clinton (1781-1829), a British military officer and colonial administrator who served as Governor of Gibraltar and Madras Presidency in India.
4. Henry Pelham Clinton (1785-1851), a British politician and writer who served as Secretary of State for the Colonies.
5. Clinton Roosevelt (1804-1898), an American writer and educator who was a distant relative of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
While the name Clinton has its roots in England, it has been adopted and used in various other parts of the world, particularly in English-speaking countries with historical ties to Britain.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Clinton
People
Clinton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clinton 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
Clinton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clinton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 66,583 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clinton 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 5,148 US residents.
Is Clinton a common name?
We classify Clinton as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 97,911 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clinton most popular?
The single biggest year for Clinton was 1981, when 2,222 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clinton is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clinton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 54,830 people with the name Clinton, or 18.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #843 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 Clinton 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 Clinton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clinton appears almost entirely male. Of the 54,834 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 Clinton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clinton is White at 75.0%. The next largest groups are Black (16.6%) and Two or More Races (3.7%). 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 Clinton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clinton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.0% (41,121 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 Clinton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clinton a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Clinton 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 Clinton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clinton 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 Clinton 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 are named Clinton?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Clinton at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.