Meaning & History
Cloé is the Portuguese form and a French variant of Chloe. The name traces its roots to the Greek Κλόη (Chloē), meaning "green shoot", a reference to new plant growth in spring. In Greek mythology, it served as an epithet of Demeter, the goddess of harvest and fertility, symbolizing the earth's renewal. The name also appears in the New Testament, where the apostle Paul mentions Chloe in his First Epistle to the Corinthians as a household that had informed him of divisions within the Corinthian church. With a feminine gender and primary usage in French and Portuguese-speaking countries, Cloé adapts the ancient name through distinct orthographic variations: in French, it often appears with an acute accent on the 'e' (Chloé is the more common Chloé), while the Portuguese Cloé continues the Classical Latin spelling Cloe. Phonetically and orthographically, it is related to the Catalan Cloè, the Spanish Cloe, and the English Chloë and Khloe. The root name Chloe gained widespread use as a British English name after the Protestant Reformation, rising sharply in popularity from the 1980s onward, topping England and Wales' charts between 1997 and 2002—a trend reflected in the varied adaptations across languages.
- Meaning: Green shoot
- Origin: Greek, via Portuguese and French
- Type: Given name (feminine)
- Usage regions: France, Portugal, and Lusophone countries