Clay
Top 1000
About Clay
Clay is a rich, earthy one-syllable name with a southern-inflected handsome-rogue image, featured on soap operas and reality TV. Its longer forms are Clayton and Clayborne.
There have been TV characters called Clay on The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, and 13 Reasons Why, and the name's most prominent recent bearers are American Idol Clay (born Clayton) Aiken and Green Bay Packer linebacker Clay (born William Clay) Matthews.
Pronounced CLAY.
As of October 2026, Clay ranked #573 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #259 in 1961, Nameberry popularity #745.
Editor: Sophie Kihm
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #841 | 269 | 140 |
| 2015 | #720 | 342 | 178.4 |
| 2016 | #725 | 338 | 178.1 |
| 2017 | #694 | 355 | 191.8 |
| 2018 | #688 | 353 | 194.4 |
| 2019 | #682 | 376 | 209.6 |
| 2020 | #643 | 417 | 241.6 |
| 2021 | #617 | 451 | 257.8 |
| 2022 | #619 | 451 | 258.3 |
| 2023 | #581 | 492 | 287.6 |
| 2024 | #543 | 545 | 316.3 |
| 2025 | #573 | 515 | 301.5 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Clay.
- Gunner
- Zeke
- Duke
- Wade
- Chandler
- Dallas
- Colt
- Drew
- Mac
- Pierce
- Drake
- Cash
- Dakota
- Denver
- Harley
- Harper
- Dex
- Remington
- Ronnie
- Jay
Clay on lists
Famous Clays
- Clayton Allen "Clay" Hensley
American baseball player
- Clayton Holmes "Clay" Aiken
American pop singer, TV personality, and politician
- (William) Clay Matthews Jr. and III
American NFL football players
- Ernest Clayton "Clay" Walker
American country music singer
- Clay Daniel Buchholz
American baseball player
- Douglas "Clay" Cook
American country musician of the Zac Brown Band
- Gianclaudio Giuseppe "Clay" Regazzoni
Swiss racing driver
- Clay Greenbush
American actor
- Clay Honeycutt
contestant on "Big Brother" season 17
- Clay Hart
American singer/guitarist from "The Lawrence Welk Show"
- Clay Clement (born Claudius Geiger)
American stage, film, and TV actor
- Clay
Minecraft YouTube personality who goes by “Dream”
Clay in pop culture
- Clayton "Clay" Evans
character on TV's "One Tree Hill"
- Clay Bailey
character in animated series "Xiaolin Showdown"
- Clay Morrow
character on TV's "Sons of Anarchy"
- Caduceus Clay
character in Critical Role
- Clay Simons
character in video game "Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned"
- Clay Jensen
main character in "13 Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
- Clay
main character in Bret Easton Ellis' "Less Than Zero"
- Clay Clemmens
character on TV's "The New Normal"
- Clay
Gym Leader in the Pokemon video games
- Clay
character in anime "Soul Eater Not!'
- Clay Terran
character in video game series "Ace Attorney"
- Clay Puffington
main character in animated series "Moral Orel"
- Clay Haas
character in TV's "Quantico"
- Clay Kaczmarek
character in video game series "Assassin's Creed"
- Clay
dragon character in children's literature series Wings Of Fire