Karlee
Karlee was given to 103 girls in 2025, #1,898 among girls’ names; 13,647 Americans have been recorded with it since 1956 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 13,500 Americans named Karlee and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 13 and 29.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karlee by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karlee mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Karlee is “a female given name from the Germanic languages.”
A spelling variant of Carly.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karlee?
#1,898 among girls’ names, 2025
Karlee fell from #696 in 2015 to #1,898 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.23 to 0.06 per 1,000.
511 babies in 2008, the peak
Karlee peaked in 2008, when 511 girls were given it, #602 among girls’ names. The 103 births of 2025 are 20% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 103 | #1,898 | 0.06 |
| 2024 | 120 | #1,705 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 156 | #1,434 | 0.10 |
| 2022 | 206 | #1,175 | 0.13 |
| 2021 | 216 | #1,140 | 0.13 |
| 2020 | 243 | #1,036 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 268 | #972 | 0.16 |
| 2018 | 288 | #930 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 332 | #822 | 0.19 |
| 2016 | 373 | #767 | 0.21 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 409 | #696 | 0.23 |
| 2014 | 414 | #684 | 0.23 |
| 2013 | 461 | #609 | 0.26 |
| 2012 | 406 | #694 | 0.23 |
| 2011 | 451 | #631 | 0.26 |
| 2010 | 445 | #658 | 0.25 |
| 2009 | 430 | #678 | 0.23 |
| 2008 | 511 | #602 | 0.27 |
| 2007 | 460 | #645 | 0.24 |
| 2006 | 446 | #650 | 0.23 |
| 2005 | 444 | #630 | 0.24 |
| 2004 | 482 | #583 | 0.26 |
| 2003 | 413 | #643 | 0.23 |
| 2002 | 383 | #664 | 0.21 |
| 2001 | 405 | #621 | 0.22 |
| 2000 | 417 | #608 | 0.23 |
| 1999 | 398 | #609 | 0.22 |
| 1998 | 408 | #592 | 0.23 |
| 1997 | 391 | #589 | 0.22 |
| 1996 | 370 | #617 | 0.21 |
| 1995 | 362 | #614 | 0.21 |
| 1994 | 361 | #615 | 0.20 |
| 1993 | 340 | #655 | 0.19 |
| 1992 | 374 | #608 | 0.20 |
| 1991 | 281 | #742 | 0.15 |
| 1990 | 142 | #1,197 | 0.07 |
| 1989 | 137 | #1,186 | 0.07 |
| 1988 | 126 | #1,199 | 0.07 |
| 1987 | 73 | #1,666 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 89 | #1,443 | 0.05 |
| 1985 | 65 | #1,745 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 62 | #1,756 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 55 | #1,891 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 47 | #2,164 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 42 | #2,354 | 0.03 |
| 1980 | 37 | #2,557 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 37 | #2,498 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 27 | #2,974 | 0.02 |
| 1977 | 20 | #3,680 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 25 | #2,959 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 20 | #3,438 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 17 | #3,769 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 18 | #3,540 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 10 | #5,252 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 7 | #6,916 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 5 | #8,593 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 7 | #5,543 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 7 | #5,419 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 5 | #6,395 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Karlee a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karlee has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 59 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karlee: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karlee, and how old are they?
13,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 13,647 Americans ever recorded as Karlee. The median Karlee alive today is 21 years old; half are between 13 and 29.
The 2020 Census counted 11,216 people named Karlee (11,188 women and girls, 28 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 12,529 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 16 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 211 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,860 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,820 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,570 |
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 Karlee born?
The states with the most babies named Karlee are Texas, Kentucky and Missouri, with 55% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Kentucky and Missouri are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 12 | #1,857 | 0.8× |
| Kentucky | 8 | #534 | 1.6× |
| Missouri | 6 | #864 | 1.2× |
| Alabama | 6 | #769 | 1.5× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,321 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,320 | 0.7× |
| Mississippi | 5 | #583 | 1.9× |
Where Karlee is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karlee is most over-represented in Utah: since 1956 it was given 2.1 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 Karlee 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 185,788 babies since 1880, Karlee is the fourth most given (7.3% of them). In 2025 it was given to 103 of their 887 babies (12%), 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 Karlee
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 Karlee and names like it
- Compare Karlee and KarlaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKarlee peaked in 2008.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karlee since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Karlee: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Karlee.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Karlee alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.