Claus

Where Claus comes from

From Dutch and German Claus, a contraction of Nicolaus (“Nicholas”). The spelling Klaus is from more modern German Klaus and other Germanic languages.
— Wiktionary's entry for Claus
  • Dutch
  • German
Along the way
  1. 1340
    Claus Sluter born
    French artist
  2. 1880
    First SSA year, and the peak
    #745 among boys with 7 babies — the first year on record, and still its best.
  3. 1881
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births.
  4. 1907
    Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg born
    German aristocrat, army officer and resistance fighter
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Dutch or from German [in turn from Ancient Greek].
Namesakes
  • Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg · German aristocrat, army officer and resistance fighter, 1907–1944
  • Claus Sluter · French artist, 1340–1406
  • Claus Jensen · Danish footballer, born 1977
  • Claus Offe · German political sociologist, 1940–2025
  • Claus Schilling · German physician hanged for unethical medical experiments under fascism in Germany and Italy, 1871–1946

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.