Cleave
Cleave was last recorded in 1972, when 5 babies were given it; 403 Americans have been recorded with it between 1885 and 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cleave by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cleave?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #5,105, in 1972; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
18 babies in 1920, the peak
Cleave peaked in 1920, when 18 boys were given it, #1,899 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 | 5 | #5,105 | 3.1 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,041 | 2.8 |
| 1959 | 5 | #4,084 | 2.3 |
| 1958 | 6 | #3,606 | 2.8 |
| 1957 | 6 | #3,631 | 2.8 |
| 1954 | 6 | #3,511 | 2.9 |
| 1953 | 8 | #2,949 | 4.1 |
| 1952 | 7 | #3,143 | 3.6 |
| 1951 | 9 | #2,696 | 4.8 |
| 1950 | 10 | #2,459 | 5.6 |
Every recorded year (51)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | 5 | #3,763 | 2.8 |
| 1946 | 8 | #2,732 | 4.9 |
| 1943 | 8 | #2,766 | 5.6 |
| 1942 | 7 | #2,978 | 5.1 |
| 1940 | 5 | #3,542 | 4.3 |
| 1937 | 12 | #2,104 | 11.3 |
| 1936 | 8 | #2,673 | 7.7 |
| 1935 | 7 | #3,005 | 6.7 |
| 1934 | 7 | #3,021 | 6.8 |
| 1933 | 10 | #2,396 | 10.1 |
| 1932 | 6 | #3,439 | 5.7 |
| 1931 | 6 | #3,454 | 5.8 |
| 1930 | 7 | #3,342 | 6.4 |
| 1929 | 8 | #3,030 | 7.4 |
| 1928 | 6 | #3,777 | 5.4 |
| 1927 | 12 | #2,431 | 10.6 |
| 1926 | 9 | #2,954 | 8.1 |
| 1925 | 7 | #3,465 | 6.3 |
| 1924 | 11 | #2,682 | 9.7 |
| 1923 | 10 | #2,797 | 9.1 |
| 1922 | 15 | #2,158 | 13.8 |
| 1921 | 11 | #2,661 | 10.0 |
| 1920 | 18 | #1,899 | 16.9 |
| 1919 | 11 | #2,532 | 11.2 |
| 1918 | 16 | #2,012 | 15.8 |
| 1917 | 9 | #2,772 | 9.7 |
| 1916 | 12 | #2,289 | 13.5 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,144 | 8.2 |
| 1914 | 9 | #2,307 | 13.7 |
| 1911 | 7 | #1,410 | 31.0 |
| 1910 | 6 | #1,451 | 30.9 |
| 1907 | 5 | #1,375 | 34.1 |
| 1905 | 5 | #1,265 | 37.8 |
| 1900 | 5 | #1,350 | 33.2 |
| 1894 | 7 | #875 | 60.5 |
| 1892 | 6 | #977 | 49.2 |
| 1891 | 5 | #997 | 49.4 |
| 1890 | 6 | #909 | 54.0 |
| 1889 | 5 | #996 | 45.2 |
| 1888 | 6 | #944 | 49.6 |
| 1885 | 6 | #850 | 55.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cleave a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cleave has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 51 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Cleave: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cleave, and how old are they?
An estimated 66 Americans named Cleave and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026, too few to state an age range. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 143 people named Cleave (1 woman or girl, 142 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 90 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 4,932 babies since 1880, Cleave is the second most given (8.2% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cleave
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cleave and names like it
- Compare Cleave and CleveBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1920sCleave peaked in 1920.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cleave since 1910.
- The top names of 1920The year the most babies were named Cleave.
- Names starting with CMost given first.