Clayton
A masculine English given name originating from a village in England.
Name Census estimates that about 106,341 living Americans carry the first name Clayton. It sits at #317 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Clayton today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clayton births was 2000 (2,577 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clayton. 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 Clayton with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Clayton is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 610 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
106K
~ 1 in 3,223 Americans
Peak year
2000
2,577 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#317
Tracked since 1880
Census
Clayton in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 91,109 people with the first name Clayton, which placed it at #585 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
#585
National first-name rank
People counted
91K
91,109 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
30.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clayton
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clayton is White at 84.4%. The next largest groups are Black (6.2%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Clayton 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 Clayton at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.4% · 76,882
- Black or African American6.2% · 5,611
- Two or more races3.9% · 3,520
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 2,590
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 1,425
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 1,081
Gender
Gender distribution for Clayton
Out of the 138,819 babies given the name Clayton since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Clayton as a male name
- Ranked #317 in 2024
- 1,081 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (2,564 births)
Clayton as a female name
- Ranked #11,397 in 2023
- 8 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1989 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clayton appears almost entirely male. Of the 91,105 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Clayton: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clayton from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 21,863 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
Clayton 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 Clayton during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Claytons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Clayton, while Rhode Island, Delaware, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,618 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clayton
The given name Clayton has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the combination of two words: "clā" meaning "clay" or "clayey soil," and "tūn" meaning "enclosure" or "settlement." It essentially translates to "settlement on clayey soil" or "clay town." The name can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon era, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD, when it was likely used to refer to specific locations or settlements built on clay-rich lands.
One of the earliest known references to the name Clayton can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. Several places in England, such as Clayton in Lancashire and Clayton in West Yorkshire, were mentioned in this historic document, indicating the name's usage as a place name during the Norman period.
As a given name for individuals, Clayton can be traced back to the 16th century. One of the earliest recorded individuals with this name was Clayton Musgrave (c. 1509 - c. 1579), an English politician who served as a Member of Parliament for Westmorland in 1558.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Clayton. One such person was Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode (1730 - 1799), an English clergyman and book collector whose extensive library was bequeathed to the British Museum upon his death. Another famous Clayton was Clayton Moore (1914 - 1999), an American actor best known for portraying the iconic role of the Lone Ranger in the television series of the same name.
In the field of science, Clayton Shagrin (1924 - 2016) was an American physicist and engineer who made significant contributions to the development of radar technology during World War II and the Cold War era. Additionally, Clayton Christensen (1952 - 2020) was a renowned Harvard Business School professor and author who popularized the theory of "disruptive innovation."
Sir Clayton Randolph Cock-burn (1905 - 1987) was a British civil servant and diplomat who served as the Governor of the Windward Islands from 1954 to 1959, playing an important role in the decolonization process of the Caribbean.
While the name Clayton has English roots, it has gained popularity across various cultures and regions over time. Its meaning and historical connections to settlements and clay-rich lands have made it a distinctive and enduring given name throughout the centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Clayton
People
Clayton + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clayton 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
Clayton: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clayton?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 106,341 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clayton 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 3,223 US residents.
Is Clayton a common name?
We classify Clayton as "Common". It ranks above 99.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 138,819 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clayton most popular?
The single biggest year for Clayton was 2000, when 2,577 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clayton is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clayton in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 91,109 people with the name Clayton, or 30.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #585 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 Clayton 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 Clayton?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clayton appears almost entirely male. Of the 91,105 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Clayton?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clayton is White at 84.4%. The next largest groups are Black (6.2%) and Two or More Races (3.9%). 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 Clayton most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clayton in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.4% (76,882 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 Clayton in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clayton a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Clayton in the SSA data are male. 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 Clayton still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clayton 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 Clayton 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 Americans are named Clayton?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.