Clarise
A feminine name of French origin meaning "bright" or "brilliant."
Name Census estimates that about 652 living Americans carry the first name Clarise. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Clarise today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clarise births was 1924 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clarise. 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 Clarise with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
652
~ 1 in 525,697 Americans
Peak year
1924
21 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2020 SSA rank
#11,308
Tracked since 1901
Census
Clarise in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 792 people with the first name Clarise, which placed it at #14,765 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
#14,765
National first-name rank
People counted
792
792 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
38.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clarise
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clarise is White at 38.5%. The next largest groups are Black (36.5%) and Hispanic (13.4%). 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 Clarise 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 Clarise at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White38.5% · 305
- Black or African American36.5% · 289
- Hispanic or Latino13.4% · 106
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.4% · 51
- Two or more races3.3% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 15
Popularity
Clarise: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clarise from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 164 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clarise 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 Clarise during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clarises live
Origin
Meaning and history of Clarise
The name Clarise is derived from the Latin name Claritia, which means "bright" or "clear." It is believed to have originated in the late Roman period, somewhere between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD. The name was initially used in parts of the Roman Empire, particularly in regions where Latin was the predominant language, such as Italy and parts of modern-day France and Spain.
While the name Clarise does not appear to have any direct references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, it is possible that it was used in some form during the Roman era. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the 12th century, when a woman named Clarise de Montfort lived in France.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Clarise. One of the most famous was Clarise de Falaise, a 12th-century Norman noblewoman who was the mistress of King Henry I of England. Another notable Clarise was Clarise de Vergy, a 13th-century French noblewoman whose tragic love story inspired numerous literary works.
In the 15th century, Clarise de Gonzaga was a prominent Italian noblewoman and the Countess of Sabbioneta. In the 16th century, Clarise de Lastic was a French Renaissance scholar and writer who was known for her advocacy of women's education.
Another notable figure was Clarise de la Rive, a 17th-century Swiss writer and salonnière who hosted a prominent literary salon in Geneva. She was known for her works on philosophy and theology.
While the name Clarise has roots in antiquity and has been used throughout various historical periods, it is worth noting that it has never been a particularly common name. It has remained relatively rare, perhaps due to its association with nobility and the upper classes in many of the examples mentioned above.
People
Clarise + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clarise 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
Clarise: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clarise?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 652 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clarise 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 525,697 US residents.
Is Clarise a common name?
We classify Clarise as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,161 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clarise most popular?
The single biggest year for Clarise was 1924, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clarise is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clarise in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 792 people with the name Clarise, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,765 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 Clarise 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 Clarise?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clarise appears almost entirely female. Of the 798 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Clarise?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clarise is White at 38.5%. The next largest groups are Black (36.5%) and Hispanic (13.4%). 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 Clarise most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clarise in the 2020 Census, accounting for 38.5% (305 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 Clarise in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clarise a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Clarise 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 Clarise still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clarise 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 Clarise 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 share the name Clarise?
You can see how many Americans are named Clarise on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.