Radcliffe
From the English place name meaning "red cliff".
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Radcliffe. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Radcliffe today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Radcliffe births was 1920 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Radcliffe. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Radcliffe. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
1920
6 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
1990 SSA rank
#9,165
Tracked since 1920
Popularity
Radcliffe: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Radcliffe from the 1920s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, 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
Radcliffe 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 Radcliffe 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 Radcliffe
The given name Radcliffe has its origins in Old English, originating from a combination of two words - "rad" meaning "red" and "clif" meaning "cliff" or "slope". This suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who lived near a red cliff or reddish slope.
The earliest recorded use of the name can be traced back to the late 11th century, shortly after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It appeared in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, where it was recorded as a surname denoting someone's place of residence.
As a given name, Radcliffe gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly among the English nobility and gentry. One notable bearer of the name was Sir Radcliffe Delves (1397-1441), a knight and landowner from Cheshire, England. He fought in the Hundred Years' War against France and was appointed a member of the King's Council.
In the 16th century, Radcliffe was the name of a prominent English family that held significant influence and power. Sir Nicholas Radcliffe (1510-1585) was a courtier and military commander during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, while his son Thomas Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex (1526-1583), served as Lord Deputy of Ireland.
The name continued to be used throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, with several notable individuals bearing it. Radcliffe Woodhouse (1628-1701) was an English politician who served as a Member of Parliament, while Radcliffe Sidebottom (1701-1760) was a renowned clockmaker and inventor from Manchester.
In more recent history, one of the most famous bearers of the name Radcliffe is Daniel Radcliffe, the British actor best known for his portrayal of Harry Potter in the hugely popular film series based on the books by J.K. Rowling. He was born in 1989 and has since gone on to star in numerous other movies and stage productions.
Other notable individuals named Radcliffe include Ann Radcliffe (1764-1823), an English author and pioneer of the Gothic novel genre, and Radcliffe Bailey (born 1968), an African American contemporary artist known for his mixed-media works exploring themes of ancestry and identity.
People
Radcliffe + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Radcliffe as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Radcliffe: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Radcliffe?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Radcliffe 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 31,159,485 US residents.
Is Radcliffe a common name?
We classify Radcliffe as "Very Rare". It ranks above 30.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 22 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Radcliffe most popular?
The single biggest year for Radcliffe was 1920, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Radcliffe is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Radcliffe a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Radcliffe 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.