After reading the thread on the availability of the 1940 Census, I volunteered to help index a batch of record. I have one I can’t make out what it says, and thought I’d appeal to the masses.
Clarence is the best guess I can come up with, too, but I have misgivings about the l/c L at second position. For it to be Clarence, we need to see the loop in the cap C as the l/c L, but look at the letter E following. The flourish is repeated there, leading me to think that there is no “l” in the C but rather just a flourish.
I agree that it’s Clarence. However, I don’t think the “L” is in the C - I agree with you that that just looks like a flourish - but it rather looks to me like there’s a really slight shadowy loop above the wiggle next to the “C” (it looks rather like a lower-case “r” in the cursive script). It looks to me like you can just see a shadowy extender raising above the top of that little hill that goes almost up to the “Zs” in “Lizzy.”
I think that it’s just faded, much like the extender at the top of the second “z” in “Lizzy” above.