Cleveland

Where Cleveland comes from

Cleveland hasn't made it into the dictionaries we draw on, and nobody well known enough for an encyclopedia has carried it yet — so for now its story is the one the SSA record tells. Names that spell a familiar sound a new way often live here for a while before anyone writes them down.

Along the way
  1. 1838
    Cleveland Abbe born
    American meteorologist and advocate of time zones
  2. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #571 among boys — 11 babies in the first year on record.
  3. 1884
    Peak, #92
    174 babies named Cleveland — more than any year before or since.
  4. 1886
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #160.
  5. 1917
    Cleveland Amory born
    American writer
In the dictionary

No dictionary entry for this spelling — which is its own kind of rare.

Namesakes
  • Cleveland Abbe · American meteorologist and advocate of time zones, 1838–1916
  • Cleveland Amory · American writer, 1917–1998
  • Cleveland Eaton · American musician, 1939–2020
  • Cleveland Moffett · American journalist and writer, 1863–1926
  • Cleveland Williams · American boxer, 1933–1999

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.