Clovis I (Latin: Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: *Hlodowig; German: Chlodwig; c. 466 – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single king, and ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. Clovis is important in the historiography of France as "the first king of what would become France."

Clovis succeeded his father, Childeric I, as a king of the Salian Franks in 481, and eventually came to rule an area extending from what is now the southern Netherlands to northern France, corresponding in Roman terms to Gallia Belgica (northern Gaul). At the Battle of Soissons (486), he established his military dominance of the rump state of the fragmenting Western Roman Empire, which was then under the command of Syagrius. By the time of his death in 511, Clovis had conquered several smaller Frankish kingdoms in the northeast of Gaul, stretching into what is now Germany. Clovis also conquered the Alemanni in eastern Gaul and the Visigothic kingdom of Aquitania in the southwest. These campaigns added significantly to Clovis's domains and established his dynasty as a major political and military presence in western Europe.

Clovis is also significant because of his baptism in 508, largely at the behest of his wife, Clotilde, who would later be venerated as a saint for this act, celebrated today in both the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. The adoption by Clovis of Catholicism (as opposed to the Arianism of most other Germanic tribes) led to widespread conversion among the Franks, and eventually to religious unification across what is now modern-day France, the Low Countries and Germany. The alliance between the Franks and Catholicism eventually led to Charlemagne's crowning by the Pope as emperor in 800, and to the subsequent birth of the early Holy Roman Empire in the middle of the 10th century.

Based on the attested forms, the original name is reconstructed in the Frankish language as *Hlodowig and is traditionally considered to be composed of two elements, both deriving from Proto-Germanic: *hlūdaz ("loud, famous") and *wiganą ("to battle, to fight"), resulting in the traditional practice of translating Clovis' name as meaning "famous warrior" or "renowned in battle".

However, scholars have pointed out that Gregory of Tours consistently transcribes the names of various Merovingian royal names containing the first element as chlodo-. The use of a close-mid back rounded vowel (o), rather than the expected close back rounded vowel (u) that Gregory does use in various other Germanic names (i.e. Fredegundis, Arnulfus, Gundobadus, etc.) opens up the possibility that the first element instead derives from Proto-Germanic *hlutą ("lot, share, portion"), possibly invoking the concept of terra or 'territory or territorial warlord' or 'warrior of this territoriality', and further reaching potentially giving the subtext meaning of the name as "loot bringer" or "plunder (bringing) warrior". This latter hypothesis is supported by the fact that if the first element is taken to mean "famous", then the name of Chlodomer (one of Clovis' sons) would contain two elements (*hlūdaz and *mērijaz) both meaning "famous", which would be highly uncommon within the typical Germanic name structure.

In Middle Dutch, a language closely related to Frankish, the name was rendered as Lodewijch (cf. modern Dutch Lodewijk). The name is found in other West Germanic languages, with cognates including Old English Hloðwig, Old Saxon Hluduco, and Old High German Hludwīg (variant Hluotwīg). The latter turned into Ludwig in Modern German, although the king Clovis himself is generally named Chlodwig. The Old Norse form Hlǫðvér was most likely borrowed from a West Germanic language.

The Frankish name *Hlodowig is at the origin of the French given name Louis (variant Ludovic), borne by 18 kings of France, via the Latinized form Hludovicus (variants Ludhovicus, Lodhuvicus, or Chlodovicus). The English Lewis stems from the Anglo-French Louis.

His full name in Latin was Flavius Chlodovechus.