Claire
Meaning
"clear, bright," from the Latin clara; carried through the centuries by St. Clare of Assisi, whose name France polished into Claire. One syllable of pure light, and the modern favorite among all its spellings
The story
Claire is the French descendant of the Latin clara, clear and bright, and its defining bearer arrived eight centuries ago: Clare of Assisi, the eighteen-year-old noblewoman who slipped away from home in 1212 to follow Francis, founded an order of her own, and became one of the most beloved saints in the calendar. The French spelling gives the old name its tailored modern finish. In America, Claire kept a quiet, persistent presence through the earlier decades of record-keeping and then found a new gear in the 1990s, climbing to its strongest era in the decades since the turn of the millennium. It has all the marks of a keeper: a single luminous syllable, unmistakably feminine, lit from inside by its own meaning. The chart may rise and settle, but clear and bright do not go out of style.
Claire's name family
One shared root links 6 names across 2 languages.
Shared root: from Latin clarus "clear, bright, famous", sainted by Clare of Assisi
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Claire peaked in the 2010s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,142 people · the #7,561 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 166,667 · median age 47
Among people named Claire living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1960s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 99 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Claire
Most people given the name Claire in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Claire deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Claire truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Claire fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Claire · Middle names for Claire · Korean American baby names
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