Clayton - Origin and Meaning of the name

[ 2 syll. clay-ton, cl-ayt-on ] The boy name Clayton is pronounced as KLEYTahN ^KEY. Clayton is an English name of Old English origin. The name Clayton means clay settlement. From the words 'claeg' meaning clay ; 'tun' meaning town, settlement, homestead. The first name is derived from the surname and nickname, which was originally given to someone who lived in a settlement of clay ground, or else in various places in England so called. The first name has been used since the early 19th century, and chiefly in the USA.

A variant of Clayton is the English short form Clay.

Clayton is a classic favorite. At present it is still popular as a baby boy name, but not as much as it was before. The name has been rising in popularity since the 1940s. At the peak of its usage in 2000, 0.123% of baby boys were given the name Clayton. It had a ranking of #151 then. In 2007, its usage was 0.065% and its ranking #247, and it was the most popular out of all boy names in its family. In 2007, Clayton was 5 times more commonly used than the next ranked name, the English Clay.

Baby names that sound like Clayton include the English names Colten, Colton, Kelton, Kolton, and Claudian.

^KEY: Pronunciation for Clayton: K as in "key (K.IY)" ; L as in "lee (L.IY)" ; EY as in "ate (EY.T)" ; T as in "tea (T.IY)" ; AH as in "hut (HH.AH.T)" ; N as in "knee (N.IY)"

A famous person named Clayton is Talent Show Contestant Clay Aiken, born Clayton Holmes Grissom 30 November 1978, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Popularity Trend
for Clayton
from 1900 to 2007

Variant Popularity Chart
for Clayton
in 2007