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Clay vs Oliver

How Clay and Oliver 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

Oliver

Male · French

Meaning: Legend Name

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Clay (boys) vs Oliver (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 Oliver
Peak year (most US births) 2000 — 641 boys 2024 — 15,343 boys
Peak rank #396 #3
Most recent rank (2025) #573 (515 births) #3 (14,939 births)
Total US births since 1880 10,231 212,737
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 4,293 142,959

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Oliver reached 15,343 US births in 2024 — 14,702 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

Oliver — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Oregon #1 2,043
2 Iowa #1 1,836
3 Utah #1 2,587
4 Idaho #1 1,137
5 Wisconsin #1 2,988

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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 →