Clare

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Claire in GB United Kingdom, AU Australia, PH Philippines and 10 more, Carrie in US United States, CA Canada, IT Italy and 5 more, Kari in NO Norway, FI Finland, DK Denmark and 1 more and קלייר in FR France, IL Israel.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Clare is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name30K records spelled Clare5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Spain

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Cläre, Claré

• a separate given name9.8K records spelled Clare3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland

  Also written Cläre, Claré

• German given name7.0K records spelled Clare6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Austria

  Languages: German, English

  Also written Cläre, Claere

• Polish given name2.0K records spelled Clare46 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United Kingdom, United States, Poland, Czechia

  Languages: Polish, Russian, Czech

  Also written Claire, Клер, Kler, Clerc, Клёр

• Polish given name1.8K records spelled Clare2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United Kingdom, Poland, United States, Ireland

  Also written Cläre

67 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Clare is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, 1) from Fr Claire/Lat Clara ‘bright, fair’, a woman’s name; first attested Clara 1210 Cur (Hu). 2) from Clare, Suffolk; first attested Richard de Clara 1086 DB (Sf). 3) from OE clay, referring to a plasterer; first attested Simon le Clayere 1279 RH (C)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, bright famous; also name of an Irish county

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In Swedish, Se Klara.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In Romanian, nominative/accusative feminine/neuter plural of clar

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Latin, clearly, obviously

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Clare Boothe Luceb. 1903USAmerican writer, politician, ambassador, journalist and anti-Communist activist (1903-1987)
• Clare Hollingworthb. 1911GBBritish journalist (1911-2017)
• Clare Fischerb. 1928USAmerican keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader (1928–2012)
• Clare Higginsb. 1955GBBritish actress
• Clare Careyb. 1967USAmerican actress (born 1967)
• Clare Calbraithb. 1974GBEnglish actress
• Georgina Catesb. 1975GBnot in their usual nameactress
• Clare Grantb. 1979USAmerican actress
• Clare Bowenb. 1984AUAustralian actress and singer
• Clare-Hope Ashiteyb. 1987GBEnglish actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 695 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Clare?

We estimate roughly 407 thousand people bear Clare (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Clare have the most bearers?

Clare is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled claire.

Where is Clare most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Clare is densest in Finland — about 1 in 135 people — even though United Kingdom holds more of our records for it.

How common is Clare compared with other names?

In the United Kingdom, Clare is the 48th most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.

Is Clare a male or female name?

Clare is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Clare mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) Person from Clare, Suffolk or Oxfordshire; (ii) from the female personal name Clare/Claire, from Latin Clara ‘renowned one’; (iii) worker with clay.