Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Clair was most popular in 1923, when 405 American babies were given the name — ranking #604 that year. In 2025 it ranked #8,077, with 29 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 16,351 people named Clair.
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Clair is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 146 of the 146 years since.
The Social Security Administration has recorded 16,351 American births named Clair between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 5,605 are estimated to be alive today.
29 American babies were named Clair in 2025, ranking #8,077 that year.
Clair is falling. Across 2021–2025 it averaged 26 births a year, against 52 a year across 2011–2015 — a change of -50% over the decade.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Across the whole record Clair is a unisex name — 26.4% of the 16,351 Americans given it were girls and 73.6% were boys. It changed hands: since 1981 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that. In births since 2016 it is 97% girls and 3% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
Roughly 5,605 Americans named Clair are alive today — 34% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 61 years old, and half are between 31 and 76. That is a wide band, the mark of a name in steady use across generations rather than a passing fashion.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
See Clair on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org