Carley
Carley was given to 63 girls in 2025, #2,725 among girls’ names; 17,328 Americans have been recorded with it since 1912 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 16,500 Americans named Carley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 19 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Carley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Carley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Carley is “a female given name from the Germanic languages, a less common spelling of Carly.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Carley?
#2,725 among girls’ names, 2025
Carley fell from #1,106 in 2015 to #2,725 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.13 to 0.04 per 1,000.
718 babies in 1998, the peak
Carley peaked in 1998, when 718 babies were given it (713 girls, #389 among girls’ names). The 63 births of 2025 are 9% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 63 | #2,725 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 53 | #3,057 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 62 | #2,760 | 0.04 |
| 2022 | 86 | #2,196 | 0.05 |
| 2021 | 123 | #1,682 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 108 | #1,822 | 0.07 |
| 2019 | 134 | #1,588 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 151 | #1,453 | 0.09 |
| 2017 | 147 | #1,508 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 171 | #1,372 | 0.10 |
Every recorded year (97)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 234 | #1,106 | 0.13 |
| 2014 | 237 | #1,080 | 0.13 |
| 2013 | 293 | #882 | 0.17 |
| 2012 | 272 | #940 | 0.15 |
| 2011 | 291 | #896 | 0.17 |
| 2010 | 360 | #760 | 0.20 |
| 2009 | 402 | #720 | 0.22 |
| 2008 | 489 | #632 | 0.26 |
| 2007 | 563 | #546 | 0.29 |
| 2006 | 533 | #552 | 0.28 |
| 2005 | 628 | #486 | 0.34 |
| 2004 | 567 | #512 | 0.31 |
| 2003 | 537 | #526 | 0.29 |
| 2002 | 572 | #488 | 0.32 |
| 2001 | 607 | #457 | 0.34 |
| 2000 | 687 | #411 | 0.38 |
| 1999 | 602 | #444 | 0.34 |
| 1998 | 713 | #389 | 0.40 |
| 1997 | 694 | #382 | 0.40 |
| 1996 | 703 | #376 | 0.40 |
| 1995 | 618 | #418 | 0.35 |
| 1994 | 609 | #411 | 0.34 |
| 1993 | 588 | #429 | 0.33 |
| 1992 | 616 | #409 | 0.33 |
| 1991 | 498 | #484 | 0.27 |
| 1990 | 271 | #760 | 0.14 |
| 1989 | 229 | #828 | 0.12 |
| 1988 | 258 | #726 | 0.14 |
| 1987 | 221 | #794 | 0.13 |
| 1986 | 209 | #802 | 0.12 |
| 1985 | 176 | #901 | 0.10 |
| 1984 | 180 | #851 | 0.11 |
| 1983 | 158 | #938 | 0.09 |
| 1982 | 149 | #989 | 0.09 |
| 1981 | 112 | #1,183 | 0.07 |
| 1980 | 84 | #1,448 | 0.05 |
| 1979 | 73 | #1,571 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 65 | #1,639 | 0.04 |
| 1977 | 69 | #1,563 | 0.05 |
| 1976 | 71 | #1,466 | 0.05 |
| 1975 | 41 | #2,100 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 61 | #1,564 | 0.04 |
| 1973 | 37 | #2,134 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 19 | #3,293 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,691 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 6 | #6,718 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,105 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #6,638 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 5 | #6,880 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 8 | #4,928 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 8 | #4,938 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,207 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,581 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 10 | #3,941 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 6 | #5,293 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 7 | #4,721 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 9 | #3,985 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,502 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 10 | #3,450 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 12 | #3,020 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 6 | #4,732 | under 0.01 |
| 1947 | 9 | #3,732 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 8 | #3,708 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 5 | #4,634 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 8 | #3,534 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 9 | #3,214 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 9 | #3,049 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 12 | #2,441 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 15 | #2,134 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 9 | #2,964 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 12 | #2,466 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 9 | #2,886 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 6 | #3,809 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 6 | #3,875 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 14 | #2,173 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 15 | #2,150 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 12 | #2,443 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 14 | #2,321 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 13 | #2,456 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 6 | #4,263 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 18 | #2,107 | 0.02 |
| 1926 | 26 | #1,627 | 0.02 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,398 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 23 | #1,816 | 0.02 |
| 1923 | 8 | #3,697 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 21 | #1,905 | 0.02 |
| 1921 | 5 | #5,225 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Carley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 17,328 Americans recorded as Carley, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 63 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Carley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Carley, and how old are they?
16,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 17,328 Americans ever recorded as Carley. The median Carley alive today is 26 years old; half are between 19 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 15,392 people named Carley (15,154 women and girls, 238 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 16,205 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 75 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 142 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 524 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 5,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,430 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,850 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Carley born?
The states with the most babies named Carley are Texas, Ohio and Missouri, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Missouri is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 5 | #3,387 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 5 | #1,498 | 1.1× |
| Missouri | 5 | #962 | 1.0× |
Where Carley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Carley is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1912 it was given 2.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Carley with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 399,840 babies since 1880, Carley is the fourth most given (4.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 63 of their 878 babies (7.2%), the seventh most given that year.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Carley
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Carley and names like it
- Compare Carley and CarlaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sCarley peaked in 1998.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Carley since 1910.
- The top names of 1998The year the most babies were named Carley.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Carley alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.