Cleon
A masculine name of Greek origin meaning "glory" or "illustrious".
Name Census estimates that about 1,380 living Americans carry the first name Cleon. It is a predominantly male name (94.1% of registrations). The average person named Cleon today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cleon births was 1921 (86 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cleon. 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.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 248,373 Americans
Peak year
1921
86 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,740
Tracked since 1884
Gender
Gender distribution for Cleon
Cleon leans heavily male at 94.1% of total registrations, but 189 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Cleon as a male name
- Ranked #9,123 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1921 (75 births)
Cleon as a female name
- Ranked #4,740 in 1942
- 5 female births in 1942
- Peak: 1917 (11 births)
Popularity
Cleon: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cleon from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 634 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
Cleon 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 Cleon during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cleons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Cleon, while Virginia, South Carolina, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cleon
The name Cleon has its origins in Ancient Greek, deriving from the words "kleos" meaning "glory" and "on" meaning "being". It was a popular name among the ancient Greeks, particularly in the city-states of Athens and Corinth.
One of the earliest known figures to bear the name Cleon was an Athenian statesman and general who lived during the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. He was a prominent leader of the democratic faction in Athens and a vocal critic of the aristocratic oligarchs. Cleon played a significant role in the decision to execute the entire male population of the island of Melos in 416 BC, an act that was widely condemned even in ancient times.
In Greek mythology, Cleon was also the name of one of the sons of Priam, the legendary king of Troy. According to Homer's Iliad, Cleon was killed during the Trojan War by the Greek hero Diomedes.
During the Hellenistic period, the name Cleon gained popularity among the Macedonian ruling class. One of the most famous figures of this era with the name was Cleon of Sicyon, a tyrant who ruled the city-state of Sicyon in the 3rd century BC. He was known for his extravagant lifestyle and patronage of the arts.
In the Roman era, the name Cleon was sometimes Latinized as "Cleonius" or "Cleonas". A notable figure with this name was Cleonius of Sicyon, a Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived in the 2nd century AD and studied under the renowned Platonist Nicomachus of Gerasa.
Throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the name Cleon remained relatively rare in Europe, although it did appear occasionally in scholarly circles as a nod to its classical origins. One notable bearer of the name was Cleon of Methoni, a 13th-century Greek scholar and diplomat who served as an interpreter for the Byzantine Empire.
In more recent times, the name Cleon has been used sporadically, often as a tribute to its ancient Greek roots. Some notable individuals with this first name include Cleon Jones (born 1942), an American baseball player who played for the New York Mets, and Cleon Daskalakis (born 1973), an American mathematician and computer scientist.
People
Cleon + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cleon 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
Cleon: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cleon?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,380 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cleon 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 248,373 US residents.
Is Cleon a common name?
We classify Cleon as "Rare". It ranks above 92% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,182 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cleon most popular?
The single biggest year for Cleon was 1921, when 86 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cleon is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Cleon a male name?
Yes, 94.1% of people registered as Cleon 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.
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.