Claudius

Claudius is a Roman family name that may derive from Latin claudus, meaning “lame” or “crippled.” It belonged to a patrician family prominent in Roman politics, whose ancestor was said to have been a 6th-century BC Sabine leader named Attius Clausus, later becoming a Roman citizen as Appius Claudius. The family produced several 1st-century Roman emperors, including the emperor known simply as Claudius (born Tiberius Claudius Nero Germanicus), who was poisoned by his wife Agrippina so her son Nero, Claudius’s stepson, could take power. The name was later borne by several early saints, including a 7th-century bishop of Besançon, and it is also the name of the primary antagonist in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet (1600).

Claudius rose from #907 to #780 for boys between 1890 and 1893. That year also produced its highest recorded birth count, at 8.