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Clarabell
How to Pronounce Clarabell
Pronounced KLAIR-uh-bel /ˈklærəbɛl/Medium
Meaning: Clarabell fuses two well-worn elements: Clara, from the Latin clarus, 'bright' or 'clear', and belle, French for 'beautiful'. The result reads as 'bright and beautiful', a compound in the same mould as Annabelle and Claribel. It appears in old ballads and, later, as the name of a famous television clown.Medium
Popularity in the U.S. · SSA data
U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880–present). Pink marker = peak year.
SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.
History & Origin
Clarabell marries Clara ('bright') to Belle ('beautiful'), a pairing that turns up in nineteenth-century songs and poems well before it was used as a birth name. It sits alongside Claribel and Annabelle in the family of romantic -belle compounds that Victorian and Edwardian parents loved.
In American records it was always scarce, reaching just a couple dozen girls a year around its high in 1917 and lingering only faintly afterward. It reads today as a sweet, slightly theatrical antique, helped and perhaps hindered by the later television clown of nearly the same name.
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Frequently Asked
What does the name Clarabell mean?
It's a blend of Clara, 'bright', and Belle, 'beautiful', so roughly 'bright and beautiful'.
How do you pronounce Clarabell?
It's said KLAIR-uh-bel /ˈklærəbɛl/, three syllables, stress on the first.
Is Clarabell a boy or girl name?
Clarabell is used as a girl's name.
Is Clarabell a popular name?
No, it has always been rare, a romantic Victorian-style compound used lightly around the early twentieth century.