Clotilde
A feminine French name derived from the German words meaning "renowned battle".
Name Census estimates that about 196 living Americans carry the first name Clotilde. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Clotilde today is around 70 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clotilde births was 1924 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clotilde. 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 Clotilde with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Clotilde is about 70 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Clotildes were born before 1966.
People living today
196
~ 1 in 1,748,747 Americans
Peak year
1924
36 babies that year
Average age
70
years old
2015 SSA rank
#17,026
Tracked since 1885
Census
Clotilde in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,689 people with the first name Clotilde, which placed it at #8,567 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
#8,567
National first-name rank
People counted
1.7K
1,689 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
66.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clotilde
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clotilde is Hispanic at 66.6%. The next largest groups are White (19.7%) and Black (9.5%). 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 Clotilde 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 Clotilde at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino66.6% · 1,125
- White19.7% · 332
- Black or African American9.5% · 161
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 60
- Two or more races0.7% · 11
Popularity
Clotilde: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clotilde from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 234 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
Clotilde 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 Clotilde during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clotildes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. Texas, New York, California recorded the most babies named Clotilde, while Massachusetts, Arizona, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clotilde
Clotilde is a feminine given name of French origin, derived from the Germanic elements "hlod" meaning "famous" and "hild" meaning "battle". It is believed to have originated in the early medieval period, around the 5th or 6th century.
The name first gained prominence in Merovingian Francia, the territory that covered much of modern-day France and parts of western Germany. It was the name of Clotilde (475-548), the wife of the Frankish king Clovis I, who played a crucial role in the conversion of the Franks to Christianity. Clotilde was instrumental in convincing her husband to convert and was later canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Another notable figure named Clotilde was Clotilde of Burgundy (554-589), the daughter of King Wamba of the Visigoths. She was married to King Alboin of the Lombards and is known for her role in the events that led to the Lombard conquest of Italy.
In the 12th century, Clotilde of Valois (1115-1189) was a French noblewoman and the daughter of King Louis VI of France. She married Theobald IV, Count of Champagne, and became a renowned patron of the arts and literature.
During the Renaissance period, Clotilde of France (1498-1524) was a French princess and the daughter of King Louis XII. She married Charles III, Duke of Savoy, and became the mother of several notable figures, including the Duke of Savoy and the Countess of Tende.
In more recent history, Clotilde of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1846-1927) was a German princess who married Ferdinand I of Bulgaria and became the first Queen of Bulgaria. She played a significant role in the establishment of the modern Bulgarian monarchy.
Throughout history, the name Clotilde has been associated with royalty, nobility, and influential figures, particularly in France and the Germanic regions. It remains a popular name in many French-speaking countries and has maintained its historical and cultural significance.
People
Clotilde + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clotilde 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
Clotilde: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clotilde?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 196 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clotilde 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 1,748,747 US residents.
Is Clotilde a common name?
We classify Clotilde as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,013 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clotilde most popular?
The single biggest year for Clotilde was 1924, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clotilde is about 70 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clotilde in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,689 people with the name Clotilde, or 0.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,567 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 Clotilde 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 Clotilde?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clotilde leans strongly female. 1,646 people counted with this name were female (97.2%), compared with 48 male bearers (2.8%). 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 Clotilde?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clotilde is Hispanic at 66.6%. The next largest groups are White (19.7%) and Black (9.5%). 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 Clotilde most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Clotilde in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.6% (1,125 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 Clotilde in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clotilde a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Clotilde 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 Clotilde still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clotilde 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 Clotilde 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 called Clotilde?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.