Carly
Carly was given to 248 girls in 2025, #1,009 among girls’ names; 66,626 Americans have been recorded with it since 1951 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 65,300 Americans named Carly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 29 years old and half are between 20 and 36.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Carly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Carly mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Carly is “a female given name from the Germanic languages.”
A feminine form of Carl with -y, taken to use in the latter half of the 20th century; also a pet form of Carla, Carlene and Carlotta.
/ˈkɑɹli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Carly?
#1,009 among girls’ names, 2025
Carly fell from #389 in 2015 to #1,009 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.47 to 0.15 per 1,000.
2,585 babies in 1995, the peak
Carly peaked in 1995, when 2,585 girls were given it, #122 among girls’ names. The 248 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 248 | #1,009 | 0.15 |
| 2024 | 308 | #875 | 0.19 |
| 2023 | 361 | #780 | 0.22 |
| 2022 | 366 | #778 | 0.22 |
| 2021 | 447 | #664 | 0.27 |
| 2020 | 471 | #621 | 0.29 |
| 2019 | 536 | #567 | 0.32 |
| 2018 | 655 | #478 | 0.39 |
| 2017 | 695 | #456 | 0.40 |
| 2016 | 807 | #413 | 0.46 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 846 | #389 | 0.47 |
| 2014 | 916 | #357 | 0.51 |
| 2013 | 1,019 | #322 | 0.58 |
| 2012 | 1,110 | #285 | 0.63 |
| 2011 | 1,277 | #248 | 0.73 |
| 2010 | 1,439 | #218 | 0.81 |
| 2009 | 1,508 | #215 | 0.82 |
| 2008 | 1,685 | #197 | 0.89 |
| 2007 | 1,323 | #261 | 0.69 |
| 2006 | 1,351 | #252 | 0.71 |
| 2005 | 1,749 | #199 | 0.95 |
| 2004 | 1,926 | #177 | 1.0 |
| 2003 | 1,762 | #183 | 1.0 |
| 2002 | 1,590 | #206 | 0.88 |
| 2001 | 1,833 | #176 | 1.0 |
| 2000 | 1,961 | #169 | 1.1 |
| 1999 | 1,827 | #172 | 1.0 |
| 1998 | 2,264 | #141 | 1.3 |
| 1997 | 2,335 | #137 | 1.3 |
| 1996 | 2,510 | #126 | 1.4 |
| 1995 | 2,585 | #122 | 1.5 |
| 1994 | 2,323 | #138 | 1.3 |
| 1993 | 2,365 | #137 | 1.3 |
| 1992 | 2,467 | #134 | 1.3 |
| 1991 | 2,338 | #137 | 1.2 |
| 1990 | 1,777 | #163 | 0.94 |
| 1989 | 1,553 | #179 | 0.84 |
| 1988 | 1,600 | #175 | 0.90 |
| 1987 | 1,412 | #196 | 0.81 |
| 1986 | 1,189 | #223 | 0.69 |
| 1985 | 1,311 | #202 | 0.76 |
| 1984 | 1,322 | #203 | 0.79 |
| 1983 | 1,160 | #219 | 0.69 |
| 1982 | 1,249 | #212 | 0.74 |
| 1981 | 927 | #270 | 0.56 |
| 1980 | 752 | #322 | 0.45 |
| 1979 | 676 | #345 | 0.42 |
| 1978 | 550 | #383 | 0.36 |
| 1977 | 401 | #478 | 0.26 |
| 1976 | 345 | #518 | 0.24 |
| 1975 | 318 | #543 | 0.22 |
| 1974 | 370 | #480 | 0.25 |
| 1973 | 240 | #630 | 0.16 |
| 1972 | 74 | #1,354 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 6 | #7,490 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 7 | #6,035 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 6 | #5,486 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 5 | #5,759 | under 0.01 |
| 1952 | 7 | #4,538 | under 0.01 |
| 1951 | 6 | #4,911 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Carly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Carly has been given almost only to girls: 160 boys in 60 years of records.
Girls and boys named Carly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Carly, and how old are they?
65,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 66,626 Americans ever recorded as Carly. The median Carly alive today is 29 years old; half are between 20 and 36.
The 2020 Census counted 62,430 people named Carly (62,183 women and girls, 247 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 63,588 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 18 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 3,560 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 27,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 26,700 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,630 |
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 Carly born?
The states with the most babies named Carly are Texas, Ohio and Florida, with 31% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 27 | #1,043 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 17 | #598 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 16 | #968 | 0.9× |
| California | 13 | #1,666 | 0.7× |
| New Jersey | 11 | #678 | 1.6× |
| New York | 10 | #1,338 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 10 | #916 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 9 | #662 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 9 | #1,009 | 0.7× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #1,035 | 1.6× |
Where Carly is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Carly is most over-represented in Pennsylvania: since 1951 it was given 1.6 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 Carly 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 480,864 babies since 1880, Carly is the fourth most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 248 of their 1,152 babies (22%), the second 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 Carly
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 Carly and names like it
- Compare Carly and CarlaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sCarly peaked in 1995.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Carly since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Carly: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1995The year the most babies were named Carly.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Carly alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with CMost given first.