Clio: Baby Name of the Day

Clio belongs to a muse and a queen, and while the name is short and simple, there’s nothing flimsy about this one.

Today’s Baby Name of the Day goes out to my daughter on her sixteenth birthday.

WHAT DOES THE NAME CLIO MEAN?

In Greek, kleos means glory.

The original Clio earned renown for repeating others’ accomplishments, as the muse of history and historic poetry in Greek mythology. Legend has it that she also introduced the alphabet to Greece. (Fraternities everywhere can thank her.)

There were nine muses in all, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. The baby name Clio works in the twenty-first century. Thalia and Calliope sound wearable, too. Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, and Urania might be more of a stretch.

In illustrations of the nine, Clio is the one holding a parchment or scrolls.

Mythology gives us at least one more minor Clio.

CLIO or CLEO?

The original Greek spelling would’ve been closer to Kleio, so both Cleo and Clio are derived from the same source, and are equally valid spellings.

Cleo brings to mind Cleopatra, the powerful, alluring, and ultimately ill-fated Egyptian queen.

While we remember just one Cleopatra, she was the seventh ruler to bear the name.  Adding patra transforms the meaning to something closer to “father’s glory.” Others argue that Cleopatra is a distinct choice related to khleis, or key, and meaning “key to the fatherland.”

Shakespeare’s enduring 1606 drama Antony and Cleopatra tells her extraordinary life story. Elizabeth Taylor played the part in 1963, cementing our modern idea of the queen complete with that dramatic eyeliner.

BUT NOT CHLOE …

Worth noting: the very popular Chloe sounds exactly like Cleo/Clio, but with the vowel sounds reversed.

Also Greek, Chloe means “green shoot” and currently ranks #26 as of 2023. It’s easy to mishear the baby name Clio as Chloe.

VINTAGE FAVORITE

The baby name Clio has never appeared in the US Top 1000. Cleo, though, ranked in the US Top 1000 for girls from 1880 through 1956.

It appeared in the boys’ Top 1000 for many of those same years, making Cleo at least potentially unisex. While we think of Cleopatra, other figures from the ancient world were Cleon and Cleopas.

Silent film star Cleo Madison was born Lulu Bailey in 1883. But she could’ve been born Cleo. In the early 1900s, as Madison’s career flourished, Cleo routinely ranked in the US Top 200. Another actress, Cleo Ridgely, also found success in silent films in the same era.

From the 1920s into the early 1950s, jazz and blues singer and pianist Cleo Brown performed, touring in-person and appearing on the radio. Actress Cleo Moore – born Cleouna – became an actress in the 1950s, known for playing the blonde bombshell in movies like Congo Bill.

The baby name Clio feels like it could belong in black and white photos from a glamorous era.

THE MUSES IN POP CULTURE

For much of Clio’s career, she’s been part of a girl group.

Back in 1947, Rita Hayworth played the muse Terpsichore, who adopted the name Kitty Pendleton and attempted to help a Broadway producer in the movie Down to Earth. The title was taken from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem Kubla Khan.

In 1980, the modern adaptation of that old movie became – wait for it – Xanadu. Australian singer Olivia Newton John roller skated and sang her heart out as the muse Clio in the 1980 cult classic. Except on Earth, Clio the Muse became Kira.

The name Kira skyrocketed post-Xanadu, and remains popular today.

That’s two near-misses for Clio.

Things changed in the 1990s.

• Television viewers were encouraged to call Miss Cleo on the Psychic Hotline.
• 1998’s catchy single “Cleopatra’s Theme” was a hit for a group of sisters – Cleo, Yonah, and Zainam Higgins. The English teenagers called themselves Cleopatra.

Then along came Disney.

CLIO AS A DISNEY NAME

Disney trivia champs know that Clio is the name of the goldfish in Pinocchio.

In 1997, Disney adapted the story of mythological hero Hercules. Sort of. The story changes quite a bit, but it does feature the Muses – or at least five of them, Calliope, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Thalia and Clio. R&B and blues singer Vaneese Thomas voiced Clio.

HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME CLIO?

As the generation that grew up on Hercules entered the parenting years, the baby name Cleo – with an E – enjoyed a revival.

Characters in Sofia the First and H2O: Just Add Water raised the name’s profile.

The Mummy’s daughter, Cleo de Nile, is one of the original ghouls enrolled at Monster High. Introduced in 2010, the dolls inspired an animated series and even live-action movies on Nickelodeon in 2022 and 2023.

Cleo returned to the US Top 1000 in 2019. As of 2023, Cleo-with-an-E ranks #608.

The baby name Clio remains very rare. Just 26 girls were named Clio-with-an-I in 2023, which is about the same level as the last decade or so.

ANCIENT NAME WITH AN EDGE

Overall, Cleo and Clio represent an ancient name with an edge.

Brief and complete, with that bright O ending, the baby name Clio fits in with names like Willow and Mia today.

But it’s also fresh and different, the kind name people recognize but seldom hear in real life. And so many of the images associated with the name – whether it’s the queen or the muse, the Monster High character or the 1990s pop star – lend Clio a certain energy and edge, too.

What do you think of the baby name Clio?

Editor’s note: This post was originally published on September 25, 2008, and was revised and re-posted on October 1, 2012; October 2, 2019; and September 12, 2024.