Clarie
A feminine name derived from the Latin "clarus", meaning bright or clear.
Name Census estimates that about 436 living Americans carry the first name Clarie. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Clarie today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clarie births was 1987 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clarie. 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.
People living today
436
~ 1 in 786,134 Americans
Peak year
1987
19 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2021 SSA rank
#10,457
Tracked since 1902
Census
Clarie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 557 people with the first name Clarie, which placed it at #19,155 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
#19,155
National first-name rank
People counted
557
557 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
62.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clarie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clarie is White at 62.8%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.4%). 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 Clarie 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 Clarie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.8% · 350
- Black or African American15.6% · 87
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.4% · 47
- Hispanic or Latino8.1% · 45
- Two or more races3.9% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 6
Popularity
Clarie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clarie from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 109 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clarie 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 Clarie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Claries live
Origin
Meaning and history of Clarie
The name Clarie is derived from the Latin name Clarus, meaning "clear" or "bright." It has its roots in ancient Roman culture and was commonly used as a masculine name during the Roman era.
The earliest recorded use of the name Clarie dates back to the 5th century AD, when it was mentioned in various historical documents and records of that time period. One notable example is the Byzantine historian Procopius, who wrote about a Roman general named Clarie who served under the emperor Justinian I in the 6th century.
In the Middle Ages, the name Clarie gained popularity among Christian communities, particularly in Western Europe. It was often associated with saints and religious figures, such as Saint Clarie of Assisi, an Italian nun and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1194 to 1253.
During the Renaissance period, the name Clarie became more widely used, appearing in various literary works and historical records. One notable figure was Clarie de Valois, a French princess and the daughter of King Henry II of France, who lived from 1548 to 1601.
In the 17th century, the name Clarie gained prominence in England and other parts of the British Isles. One famous bearer of the name was Clarie Clairmont, an English author and the stepsister of Mary Shelley, who lived from 1798 to 1879.
Another notable figure was Clarie Booth Luce, an American playwright, journalist, and diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Italy from 1953 to 1956. She lived from 1903 to 1987.
In more recent times, the name Clarie has been popularized by various cultural figures, such as Clarie Danes, an American actress born in 1979, who is best known for her roles in the TV series "Homeland" and the movie "Romeo + Juliet."
People
Clarie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clarie 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
Clarie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clarie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 436 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clarie 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 786,134 US residents.
Is Clarie a common name?
We classify Clarie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 778 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clarie most popular?
The single biggest year for Clarie was 1987, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clarie is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clarie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 557 people with the name Clarie, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,155 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 Clarie 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 Clarie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clarie leans strongly female. 530 people counted with this name were female (96.7%), compared with 18 male bearers (3.3%). 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 Clarie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clarie is White at 62.8%. The next largest groups are Black (15.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.4%). 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 Clarie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clarie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.8% (350 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 Clarie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clarie a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Clarie 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 Clarie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clarie 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 Clarie 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 Clarie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.