MEANING & HISTORY
What does Clarence mean?
Clarence entered personal-name use from the English ducal title. The title is associated with Clare in Suffolk and Latin forms meaning from Clare.
Other geographical associations appear in historical discussions, but the title-name formation is the secure immediate route. Bright or clear may sound plausible beside Clara, yet it is not a substitute for Clarence’s documented title history.
References for this explanation
Pronunciation & syllables
Dictionary readings are kept by language. Select the reading that matches your intended pronunciation. Dots show the source’s written divisions; they are not a universal syllable count across languages.
Tagalog
- /ˈklaɾens/Standard-Tagalog
- [ˈk̠laː.ɾɛn̪s]Standard-Tagalog
Cla · rence2 source divisions
Dictionary reading & contributors ↗Wiktionary contributors / Kaikki / Wiktextract · CC BY-SA 4.0
Origin and name formation
Language-specific accounts from the dictionary. A shared spelling can have more than one history.
TagalogEtymology & source
Borrowed from English Clarence.
a male given name from English
Wiktionary: Clarence (Tagalog) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
CebuanoEtymology & source
From English Clarence.
a male given name from English
Wiktionary: Clarence (Cebuano) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
EnglishEtymology & source
Originally a ducal title of the English and British royal family, from Clārensis (“from the town of Clare”), (the town of Clare, Suffolk), although it has also been associated with Italian Chiarenza, Clarentza, &c., a former fortress and settlement in the medieval Frankish Principality of Achaea in Greece.
A male given name transferred from the surname.
Wiktionary: Clarence (English) ↗ · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
Adapted from Wiktionary contributors via Kaikki/Wiktextract. Source accounts remain in their original English; editorial summaries and filters are adapted. Attribution and downloads
People with the name Clarence
Public figures and other documented namesakes linked by an explicit given-name claim. This is a selection of records, not a popularity ranking.
DOCUMENTED NAMESAKE
Clarence Delgado
Filipino actor
The record establishes the name association, not the person’s intended meaning, pronunciation or ancestry. Descriptions are attributed to Wikidata contributors (CC0).
Use in Philippine-linked records
Public-record transcription
3
eligible source records · 2001
This spelling is reported in an openly licensed transcription of elected-candidate records. This is a record count, not a birth count or national popularity measure.
OpenHalalan / COMELEC ↗Wikidata
3
distinct person records with an explicit given-name claim
Community-edited coverage, not a census or birth registry. Examples: Clarence Delgado, Clarence S. B. Tan
PSA · OFFICIAL BIRTH RECORDS
Clarence in the birth records
Exact spelling and stated year in the published name tables. Read the counts as individual snapshots.
Tables included: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2016 fact sheet lists five names per sex; the later tables include ten. Missing counts are not inferred. Sex categories follow the official tables, independently of dictionary gender labels. Explore the official tables →
Similar names to Clarence
Names with a similar opening or ending, ordered by spelling distance. Similar spelling does not imply the same meaning or origin.
Names in this collection
- Florence♀Flourishing or flowering
- Laurence·From Laurentius, associated with Laurentum and laurel
- Lawrence♂From Laurentum, an ancient Italian town
- Clare♂♀Medieval English form of Clara: clear or bright
- Clemente♂Merciful or gentle
- Lance♂From Lanzo and the Germanic land element
- Terence♂From the Roman family name Terentius
- Terrence♂Variant of Terence, from Terentius
What rhymes with Clarence?
No dictionary-confirmed rhyme match is available for this spelling in the current catalogue.
Recorded combinations with Clarence
1 source-reported compound forms include this name as a component. Each part keeps its own history.
Names in this collection
Explore combinations →Explore Clarence further
Follow the sources
- OpenHalalan — pinned 2001 COMELEC transcription (opens in a new tab)
Source-reported given-name form in a row with a separate explicit middle initial; ODbL-1.0.
- COMELEC — 2001 List of Elected Candidates (opens in a new tab)
Original document identified by the transcription; selected PDF entries were spot-checked, not every imported row.
- Wikidata given-name item Q3373079 — Clarence (opens in a new tab)
Given-name identity, native labels, language associations and explicit class where present; not lexical meaning or population frequency.
- Wikidata — Clarence Delgado (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q3373079 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wikidata — Clarence S. B. Tan (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name claim P735 linking to Q3373079 and citizenship claim P27 linking to Philippines Q928; community-edited evidence, not a civil-registry record.
- Wiktionary contributors — Clarence (Tagalog) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Clarence (Cebuano) (opens in a new tab)
Explicit given-name sense and separately attributed etymology; no birth-frequency claim.
- Wiktionary contributors — Clarence (English) (opens in a new tab)
Language-specific given-name etymology; shared spelling does not prove every bearer has this origin.
- Wiktionary: Clarence (opens in a new tab)
Personal-name formation and etymological relationships; imported dictionary account consulted.