Claudette
A feminine name of French origin meaning "small lame one".
Name Census estimates that about 10,463 living Americans carry the first name Claudette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Claudette today is around 67 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Claudette births was 1936 (709 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Claudette. 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 Claudette with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Claudette is about 67 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Claudettes were born before 1969.
People living today
10K
~ 1 in 32,759 Americans
Peak year
1936
709 babies that year
Average age
67
years old
1959 SSA rank
#4,083
Tracked since 1915
Census
Claudette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,471 people with the first name Claudette, which placed it at #1,734 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
#1,734
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,471 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Claudette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudette is White at 46.4%. The next largest groups are Black (42.9%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Claudette 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 Claudette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.4% · 8,098
- Black or African American42.9% · 7,494
- Hispanic or Latino5.3% · 926
- Two or more races2.7% · 463
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 335
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 155
Gender
Gender distribution for Claudette
Out of the 18,787 babies given the name Claudette since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Claudette as a male name
- Ranked #4,083 in 1959
- 5 male births in 1959
- Peak: 1936 (6 births)
Claudette as a female name
- Ranked #10,424 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1935 (704 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claudette appears almost entirely female. Of the 17,470 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Claudette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Claudette from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 5,047 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Claudette 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 Claudette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Claudettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Claudette, while Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 325 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Claudette
The name Claudette derives from the Roman family name Claudius, which itself originated from the Latin word claudus, meaning "lame" or "crippled." The name gained prominence during the Roman imperial period, with several notable figures bearing the name.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Claudette can be found in the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, a French noblewoman named Claudette de Rethel was recorded as the wife of Raoul I, Count of Soissons. This early mention suggests that the name was already in use as a feminine form of Claudius.
During the Renaissance, the name Claudette gained popularity in France and other parts of Europe. A notable figure from this period was Claudette Labé, a 16th-century French Renaissance poet and feminist writer. Born in Lyon in 1520, she is considered one of the first modern female poets to explore themes of female sexuality and desire in her works.
In the 17th century, Claudette Bouret, a French actress and dancer, graced the stage of the Comédie-Française in Paris. She was renowned for her performances in comedic roles and is mentioned in several contemporary accounts of the Parisian theater scene.
The 19th century saw the name Claudette gain popularity in the United States, with several notable figures bearing the name. Claudette Colbert, an American actress born in 1905, was a leading lady in Hollywood's Golden Age. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the 1934 film "It Happened One Night."
Another famous Claudette from the 20th century was Claudette Colvin, an African American pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1955, at the age of 15, she refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, predating the famous act of defiance by Rosa Parks later that year.
The name Claudette has a rich history, spanning various cultures and time periods. From its Roman origins to its Renaissance revival and its adoption in the modern era, the name has been borne by notable figures in literature, theater, film, and social activism, adding to its cultural significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Claudette
People
Claudette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Claudette 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
Claudette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Claudette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,463 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Claudette 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 32,759 US residents.
Is Claudette a common name?
We classify Claudette as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,787 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Claudette most popular?
The single biggest year for Claudette was 1936, when 709 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Claudette is about 67 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Claudette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,471 people with the name Claudette, or 5.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,734 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 Claudette 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 Claudette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Claudette appears almost entirely female. Of the 17,470 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Claudette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Claudette is White at 46.4%. The next largest groups are Black (42.9%) and Hispanic (5.3%). 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 Claudette most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Claudette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.4% (8,098 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 Claudette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Claudette a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Claudette 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 Claudette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Claudette 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 Claudette 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 have the name Claudette?
Want to know how many Americans are named Claudette? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.