William Clark Gable was born on February 1, 1901, in Cadiz, Ohio, to William Henry "Will" Gable (1870–1948), an oil-well driller, and his wife Adeline ( Hershelman). His father was a Protestant and his mother a Catholic. Gable was named William after his father, but he was almost always called Clark, and referred to as "the kid" by his father. Due to the doctor's illegible handwriting, he was mistakenly listed as male and female in the county register; the clerk later corrected it to male. He had Pennsylvania Dutch, Belgian, and German ancestry.