Cleve

Where Cleve comes from

The dictionaries list Cleve as a given name — a male given name, found predominantly in the United States — but don't trace where it came from. The record below is what the SSA data shows.

  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1882
    First appearance
    #514 among boys, 13 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1885
    Peak, #190
    69 babies named Cleve — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1887
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #276.
  4. 1939
    Cleve Moler born
    American mathematician specializing in numerical analysis
  5. 1947
    Cleve Livingston born
    American rower
In the dictionary
  • A male given name, found predominantly in the United States.
Namesakes
  • Cleve Moler · American mathematician specializing in numerical analysis, 1939–2026
  • Cleve Livingston · American rower, born 1947
  • Cleve Jones · American LGBT rights and AIDS activist, born 1954
  • Cleve Backster · Introduced polygraph or "lie-detector" tests, worked in the CIA. Later performed experiments and theorized "plant perception"., 1924–2013
  • Cleve Benedict · American politician, born 1935

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.