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Clay vs Lucas

How Clay and Lucas compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Clay

Male · English

Meaning: Mortal

Lucas

Male · Gaelic

Meaning: Light

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Clay (boys) vs Lucas (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Clay Lucas
Peak year (most US births) 2000 — 641 boys 2017 — 13,029 boys
Peak rank #396 #11
Most recent rank (2025) #573 (515 births) #10 (10,219 births)
Total US births since 1880 10,231 290,284
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 4,293 116,799

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Lucas reached 13,029 US births in 2017 — 12,388 more than Clay's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Clay — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 West Virginia #284 35
2 Iowa #305 126
3 Idaho #312 36
4 Kentucky #335 130
5 Arkansas #372 63

Lucas — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Florida #3 8,933
2 New York #4 8,253
3 New Jersey #4 3,983
4 Maryland #6 2,113
5 Connecticut #6 1,403

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →