Cleo

Where Cleo comes from

Shortened from Cleopatra or a variant of Clio. The rare male name derives from names of Ancient Greek origin such as Cleon and Cleopas.
— Wiktionary's entry for Cleo
  • Ancient Greek
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #403 among girls — 17 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1907
    Peak, #171
    325 babies named Cleo — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1924
    Cleo Moore born
    American actress
  4. 1927
    Cleo Laine born
    English jazz singer and actress
  5. 1950
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #686.
  6. 1983
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek.
  • A male given name from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Cleo Laine · English jazz singer and actress, 1927–2025
  • Cleo Moore · American actress, 1924–1973
  • Cleo King · American actress, born 1962
  • Cleo Massey · Australian actress, born 1993
  • Cleo Madison · actress and film director, 1883–1964

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.