Clemen
A unisex name with Latin and French roots meaning "clement" or "merciful".
Name Census estimates that about 1 living Americans carry the first name Clemen. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Clemen today is around 76 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clemen births was 1928 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clemen. 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 Clemen is about 76 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Clemens were born before 1960.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Clemen. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
1
~ 1 in 342,754,338 Americans
Peak year
1928
6 babies that year
Average age
76
years old
1930 SSA rank
#3,661
Tracked since 1928
Census
Clemen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 133 people with the first name Clemen, which placed it at #48,223 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
#48,223
National first-name rank
People counted
133
133 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
56.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clemen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clemen is Hispanic at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.3%) and White (11.3%). 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 Clemen 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 Clemen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino56.4% · 75
- Asian and Pacific Islander23.3% · 31
- White11.3% · 15
- Black or African American8.3% · 11
- Two or more races0.8% · 1
Popularity
Clemen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clemen from the 1920s through to the 1930s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 6 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clemen 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 Clemen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clemen
The given name Clemen has its origins in the Late Latin name Clemens, meaning "merciful" or "gentle". This name can be traced back to the Roman Republic era, where it was used as a cognomen or personal surname.
Clemens was derived from the Latin word clementia, which means "mercy" or "clemency". It was often associated with virtues such as compassion, kindness, and moderation, qualities that were highly valued in Roman society.
One of the earliest and most notable historical references to the name Clemens is found in the New Testament of the Bible. It is believed that the Apostle Clement, who is mentioned in Philippians 4:3, was the same person as Pope Clement I, who served as the fourth Pope of the Catholic Church from around 88 to 99 AD.
Another famous bearer of the name was Clement of Alexandria, a Christian theologian and philosopher who lived from around 150 to 215 AD. He was an influential figure in the early Church and is renowned for his writings on Christian philosophy and doctrine.
In the Middle Ages, the name Clemen gained popularity among European nobility and royalty. One notable example is Clement VI, who was Pope from 1342 to 1352. He is remembered for his involvement in the Avignon Papacy and his efforts to resolve conflicts between England and France during the Hundred Years' War.
The Renaissance period saw the rise of several individuals named Clemen who made significant contributions to various fields. One such individual was Clement Marot, a French Renaissance poet who lived from 1496 to 1544. He is considered one of the most influential French poets of the 16th century and is credited with popularizing the poetic form known as the Clément Marot Rondeau.
Another notable figure was Clement Attlee, the British Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. He played a crucial role in the establishment of the welfare state and the National Health Service in the aftermath of World War II.
People
Clemen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clemen 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
Clemen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clemen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clemen 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 342,754,338 US residents.
Is Clemen a common name?
We classify Clemen as "Very Rare". It ranks above 3.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clemen most popular?
The single biggest year for Clemen was 1928, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clemen is about 76 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clemen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 133 people with the name Clemen, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,223 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 Clemen 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 Clemen?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Clemen on both sides of the split. Of the 139 people counted with this name, 52 were male (37.4%) and 87 were female (62.6%). 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 Clemen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clemen is Hispanic at 56.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (23.3%) and White (11.3%). 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 Clemen most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Clemen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.4% (75 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 Clemen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clemen a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Clemen 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 Clemen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clemen 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 Clemen 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 Clemen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.