Claire (name)
Encyclopedia
Claire or Clair is a given name of Latin origin via French
; the name could mean "clear" or "famous", and is pronounced ˈklɛər. The word still means clear in French.
Its popularity in the United Kingdom
peaked during the 1970s and 1980s; in 1974 in was the second most popular female first name and in 1984 was still sixth, but by 1997 it had fallen out of the top 100 after several years of sharply declining popularity.
The name was traditionally considered male, specifically when spelled Clair; however, it is now commonly used as a female name and is usually spelled Claire.
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
; the name could mean "clear" or "famous", and is pronounced ˈklɛər. The word still means clear in French.
Its popularity in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
peaked during the 1970s and 1980s; in 1974 in was the second most popular female first name and in 1984 was still sixth, but by 1997 it had fallen out of the top 100 after several years of sharply declining popularity.
The name was traditionally considered male, specifically when spelled Clair; however, it is now commonly used as a female name and is usually spelled Claire.
Women with the given name Claire
- Clare of AssisiClare of AssisiClare of Assisi , born Chiara Offreduccio, is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi...
(born 1194), Italian saint, founder of the Poor Clares - Princess Claire of BelgiumPrincess Claire of BelgiumPrincess Claire of Belgium, is the wife of Prince Laurent of Belgium and is a land surveyor.- Biography :...
(born 1974) - Claire DanesClaire DanesClaire Catherine Danes is an American actress of television, stage and film. She has appeared in roles as diverse as Angela Chase in My So-Called Life, as Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, as Kate Brewster in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as Yvaine in Stardust and as Temple Grandin in...
(born 1979), American actress - Claire EtcherelliClaire EtcherelliClaire Etcherelli is a French novelist who has won Femina Prize * for her novel Elise, or the real life *-Bibliography:*Elise ou la vraie vie...
(born 1934), French novelist - Claire ForlaniClaire ForlaniClaire Antonia Forlani is an English actress.-Early life:Claire Forlani was born in Twickenham, London, the daughter of Barbara , who was English, and Pierluigi Forlani, a music manager from Ferrara, Italy. At the age of 11, Forlani entered the Arts Educational School in London, where she began to...
(born 1972), entertainer - Claire HarrisClaire HarrisFor the science fiction author, see Clare Winger HarrisClaire Harris is a Canadian poet who lives in Calgary, Alberta....
(born 1937), Canadian poet - Claire HooperClaire HooperClaire Hooper is an Australian stand-up comedian and writer. She appeared as a team captain on the 2008 revival of Good News Week on Network Ten and previously was a regular on The Sideshow, appearing with Paul McDermott...
(born 1976), AustralianAustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
comedian - Claire Martin (author)Claire Martin (author)Claire Martin, is the pseudonym of the Canadian writer Claire Montreuil.Born in Quebec City, Quebec, she was educated at the Ursuline convent and by the Dames de la Congrégation. From 1945 to 1972, she lived in Ottawa and was a writer in residence at the University of Ottawa...
(born 1914), pseudonym of Canadian author Claire Montreuil - Claire Martin (meteorologist)Claire Martin (meteorologist)Claire Martin BSc is a national television weather presenter with CBC Television in Canada. She is a niece of Barbara Edwards, who in 1974 became the BBC's first female weather presenter in the UK...
, British-born television weather presenter, now living in Canada - Claire Martin (singer)Claire Martin (singer)Claire Martin, OBE is an English jazz singer, born in Wimbledon, South London, England.Claire Martin grew up in a house "full of music", and claims to have learned all of Judy Garland´s songs by the time she was 12...
(born 1967), British jazz singer - Claire McCaskillClaire McCaskillClaire Conner McCaskill is the senior United States Senator from Missouri and a member of the Democratic Party. She defeated Republican incumbent Jim Talent in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, by a margin of 49.6% to 47.3%. She is the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Missouri in her own...
(born 1953), Senator from Missouri - Claire RaynerClaire RaynerClaire Berenice Rayner OBE was an English nurse, journalist, broadcaster and novelist, best known for her role for many years as an agony aunt.-Early life:...
(born 1931), English journalist and agony aunt - Claire SkinnerClaire SkinnerClaire L. Skinner is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her television career.-Biography:Born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Skinner, the youngest daughter of a shopkeeper and an Irish-born secretary, was immensely shy as a child...
(born 1965), British actress
Fictional characters
- Claire BennetClaire BennetClaire Bennet is a fictional character in the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes. She is portrayed by Hayden Panettiere and first appeared on television in the pilot episode of the series, "Genesis" on September 25, 2006...
in the TV series HeroesHeroes (TV series)Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the... - Claire Fisher in the TV series Six Feet Under
- Claire LittletonClaire LittletonClaire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant crash survivor. She is a series regular until her...
in the TV series LostLost (TV series)Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island... - Claire RedfieldClaire Redfieldis a player character appearing in the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games.Claire is the younger sister of Chris Redfield, the protagonist of the first Resident Evil game...
in the video game series Resident Evil - Clair Huxtable in the TV series The Cosby ShowThe Cosby ShowThe Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
- Clair in the PokémonPokémonis a media franchise published and owned by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri in 1996. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games developed by Game Freak, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video...
universe - Claire Foley in the Professor Layton universe
- Claire Fraser in the novel OutlanderOutlander (novel)Outlander is the first novel in a series of seven by Diana Gabaldon. The book focuses on two main characters, Claire Randall and James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser, and takes place in 18th- and 20th-century Scotland...
and its sequels
Men with the given name Claire
- Lt. Gen. Claire Lee ChennaultClaire Lee ChennaultLieutenant General Claire Lee Chennault , was an American military aviator. A contentious officer, he was a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fight-interceptor aircraft during the 1930s when the U.S. Army Air Corps was focused primarily on high-altitude bombardment...
(1893–1958), American aviator, WW2 commander of the "Flying Tigers"
- Clair Cameron PattersonClair Cameron PattersonClair Cameron Patterson was a geochemist born in Mitchellville, Iowa, United States. He graduated from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, received his Ph.D...
(1922 – 1995), American geochemist, who developed the lead-lead isotopic dating method and used it to calculate the age of the Earth as 4.55 billion years