Cledith
It's an English feminine name of uncertain meaning and origins.
Name Census estimates that about 81 living Americans carry the first name Cledith. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 53.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Cledith today is around 83 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cledith births was 1936 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cledith. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Cledith is about 83 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Clediths were born before 1953.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Cledith. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
81
~ 1 in 4,231,535 Americans
Peak year
1936
24 babies that year
Average age
83
years old
1966 SSA rank
#4,041
Tracked since 1913
Census
Cledith in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 188 people with the first name Cledith, which placed it at #39,872 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
#39,872
National first-name rank
People counted
188
188 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cledith
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cledith is White at 88.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Cledith 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 Cledith at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.3% · 166
- Black or African American6.4% · 12
- Two or more races2.1% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Cledith
Cledith is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 447 total registrations, 207 (46.3%) were male and 240 (53.7%) were female.
Cledith as a male name
- Ranked #4,041 in 1966
- 5 male births in 1966
- Peak: 1933 (13 births)
Cledith as a female name
- Ranked #4,065 in 1946
- 7 female births in 1946
- Peak: 1915 (20 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cledith on both sides of the split. Of the 186 people counted with this name, 102 were male (54.8%) and 84 were female (45.2%).
Popularity
Cledith: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cledith from the 1910s through to the 1960s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 140 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Cledith 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 Cledith during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clediths live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia recorded the most babies named Cledith, while West Virginia, Missouri, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cledith
The name Cledith is an Old English name that originated in the 7th century AD. It is derived from the Old English words "clæne" meaning "clean" and "diþ" meaning "ditch" or "trench". The name was likely given to children born near a clean or well-maintained ditch or trench.
Cledith was a relatively uncommon name during the Anglo-Saxon period, but it did appear in some historical records from that time. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name was in the Cartulary of Burton Abbey, which documented a landowner named Cledith in Staffordshire in the late 7th century.
The name gained some popularity in the 10th century, with a few notable bearers appearing in historical records. Cledith of Mercia (c. 920 - 980) was a minor nobleman and landowner who was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for his role in a local dispute over land rights.
During the Middle Ages, the name fell out of use and became quite rare. It was revived briefly in the 16th century, with one of the most notable bearers being Cledith Wycliffe (1534 - 1607), a scholar and translator who produced an English translation of several ancient Greek texts.
In the 18th century, a notable bearer of the name was Cledith Bunting (1722 - 1795), an English botanist and naturalist who made significant contributions to the study of plant life in the British Isles.
Another notable bearer of the name was Cledith Wilkinson (1845 - 1920), a British explorer and writer who documented her travels through the Middle East and Asia in several published works.
Despite its historical roots, the name Cledith has become extremely rare in modern times, with very few recorded instances of its use as a first name in recent centuries.
People
Cledith + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cledith 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
Cledith: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cledith?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 81 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cledith 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 4,231,535 US residents.
Is Cledith a common name?
We classify Cledith as "Very Rare". It ranks above 61.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 447 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cledith most popular?
The single biggest year for Cledith was 1936, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cledith is about 83 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cledith in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 188 people with the name Cledith, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #39,872 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 Cledith 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 Cledith?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Cledith on both sides of the split. Of the 186 people counted with this name, 102 were male (54.8%) and 84 were female (45.2%). 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 Cledith?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cledith is White at 88.3%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Two or More Races (2.1%). 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 Cledith most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cledith in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.3% (166 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 Cledith in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cledith a female name?
Yes, 53.7% of people registered as Cledith 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 Cledith still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cledith 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 Cledith 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 Cledith?
Find out how many Americans are named Cledith on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.