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BabyNames
Girl name#188 of girl names

Claire

Pronounced K L EH1 R (ARPABET)

  • 1 syllable
  • Peaked 2016
  • 145 years in use
  • 3 spellings
Compare

How popular is Claire?

Claire is a girls' name, and has been in the record since the data starts in 1880. It has been given to 243,974 children — the 188th most common girls' name on record.

Its use has been broadly flat across the past two decades. Its best single year was 2016, when 5,647 children were given it.

Three other spellings are counted in that total — Clare, Clair and Klare — because they are pronounced identically.

02,5005,0007,50010,00018901920195019802010
20165,647

Spelling variants

These spellings sound identical to Claire and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.

  • Clare
  • Clair
  • Klare

Characteristics

  • 1 syllable
Phonetic detail
Pronunciations:
K L EH1 R
Stress pattern:
1
Syllables:
1

Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.

Sibling names for Claire

Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.

Frequently asked questions

How popular is the name Claire?
Claire ranks 188th among girls' names in US records, with 243,974 births since 1880. Over the past decade it accounts for 44,336.
Is Claire a unisex name?
No. Claire is recorded almost entirely as a girls' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
When was Claire most popular?
2016, when 5,647 children were given the name. It has been in use for 145 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
How else is Claire spelled?
Clare, Clair, Klare. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.