First, he was a Hollywood leading man.  Then he was Superman’s mild-mannered alter ego.  Then along came the candy bar and the Griswolds …

In honor of my dear dad, our Baby Name of the Day is Clark.

Depending on your perspective, Clark either conjures up the golden age of movies, the golden age of comic books, or possibly memories of family vacations.

But Clark’s roots are older.  He’s an occupational surname, originally worn by someone tasked with recording or secretarial duties.  The term emerges in Middle English, in an era when most educated men were monks.  Think of our word cleric, derived from the Late Latin clericus.  It became clerc in Old French and eventually clerk or clark in English.  Clark stuck as the surname form.

Thanks to William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, there’s a healthy dose of Americana associated with this name.  The duo set off from 1804 to 1806, traveling from the lands of Missouri all the way to the Pacific Northwest and back again.

Bearers of the surname range from Hilda Clark, a nineteenth century model who rose to fame in an ad campaign for Coca-Cola, to American Bandstand’s eternally youthful Dick Clark.

There’s also David L. Clark, an entrepreneur who founded the D.L. Clark Company in 1886 in what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The sign pictured above advertises one of the company’s most famous products – the Clark Bar, a milk chocolate and peanut butter confection that is still widely available today, though the company is no more – NECCO now produces the candy.

But the first Clark who springs to mind as a bearer of the first name is likely Hollywood screen legend Clark Gable.  The actor was born William Clark Gable, and it is sometimes said that he was named after the co-leader of the Lewis and Clark expedition.  (Though it is worth noting that his dad was called William and Clark is a common surname that appears elsewhere on his family tree, suggesting that resemblance to the explorer is a happy coincidence.)  Gable’s career began in the 1920s, accelerated in the 1930s, fueled by his Best Actor Oscar for It Happened One Night.  His last film was 1961′s The Misfits – he died just two weeks after production ended.

Clark Gable was a major Hollywood force when DC Comics writers gave the name to Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent of Smallville, Kansas, by way of the doomed planet Krypton.  Superman has been one of the most enduring of superheroes, recently rebooted for a decade-long run in prequel television series Smallville.

Between 1983 and 1997, Clark was worn by comedian Chevy Chase.  The Griswold patriarch took his wife, Ellen, and kids Rusty and Audrey, on a series of disastrous vacations.  Chase made the name famous once more, but probably inspired few parents – after all, a station-wagon driving dad isn’t necessarily the most stylish source of inspiration.

Clark had always ticked along in the US Top 1000, ranking in the 200s and 300s from the nineteenth century into the 1960s.  He’s teetered on the edge of obscurity recent years.  His rank of #694 in 2010 marks a slight improvement.

With parents choosing names like Cade and Cole, Gage and Finn, Clark fits in better than you might expect.  Between the Man of Steel and the Hollywood icon, there’s reason to think that Clark could wear well today.