Clio
A feminine name of Greek origin referring to the muse of history.
Name Census estimates that about 638 living Americans carry the first name Clio. It is a predominantly female name (97.1% of registrations). The average person named Clio today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Clio births was 2015 (37 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Clio. 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 Clio with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
638
~ 1 in 537,233 Americans
Peak year
2015
37 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
1933 SSA rank
#3,061
Tracked since 1894
Census
Clio in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 673 people with the first name Clio, which placed it at #16,669 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
#16,669
National first-name rank
People counted
673
673 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Clio
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clio is White at 66.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Two or More Races (9.7%). 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 Clio 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 Clio at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.4% · 447
- Hispanic or Latino14.0% · 94
- Two or more races9.7% · 65
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.0% · 47
- Black or African American2.8% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Clio
Clio leans heavily female at 97.1% of total registrations, but 25 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Clio as a male name
- Ranked #3,061 in 1933
- 7 male births in 1933
- Peak: 1930 (7 births)
Clio as a female name
- Ranked #5,973 in 2024
- 20 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (37 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clio leans strongly female. 639 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 29 male bearers (4.3%).
Popularity
Clio: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Clio from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 256 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Clio remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Clio 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 Clio during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Clios live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, New York, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Clio, while Texas, Massachusetts, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 28 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Clio
The given name Clio originates from Ancient Greek and is the name of the muse of history in Greek mythology. The name derives from the Greek word "kleiō" meaning "to recount" or "to celebrate." It likely emerged as a personal name in ancient Greece, though records from that era are scarce.
Clio was one of the nine muses in Greek mythology, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. As the muse of history, she was often depicted carrying a scroll and wearing a crown of laurel leaves. Her name appears frequently in ancient Greek literature and poetry as an invocation to the muse for inspiration in recounting historical events.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Clio was Clio of Byzantium, a Greek historian who lived in the 4th century BC. Her works, which have been lost, focused on the history of the regions around the Black Sea.
In the Renaissance period, the name Clio gained popularity among the educated classes as a nod to the classical ideals of the era. One notable bearer was Clio Lucretia Rickman (1711-1808), an English poet and playwright.
In the 19th century, the name Clio was used by several notable figures, including Clio Rickman (1840-1920), an English writer and feminist, and Clio Hinton Ricketts (1871-1954), an American artist and advocate for Native American rights.
Another well-known individual with the name Clio was Clio Sterne (1888-1958), an Austrian-born British actress and dancer who appeared in numerous films and stage productions in the early 20th century.
More recently, Clio Gould (1915-1985) was a British actress and dancer who performed in several West End productions and films during the mid-20th century.
People
Clio + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Clio 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
Clio: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Clio?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 638 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Clio 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 537,233 US residents.
Is Clio a common name?
We classify Clio as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 856 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Clio most popular?
The single biggest year for Clio was 2015, when 37 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Clio is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Clio in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 673 people with the name Clio, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,669 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 Clio 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 Clio?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Clio leans strongly female. 639 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 29 male bearers (4.3%). 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 Clio?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Clio is White at 66.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.0%) and Two or More Races (9.7%). 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 Clio most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Clio in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.4% (447 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 Clio in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Clio a female name?
Yes, 97.1% of people registered as Clio 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 Clio still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Clio 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 Clio 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 Clio?
See how many people share the name Clio on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.