Karley
Karley was given to 46 girls in 2025, #3,361 among girls’ names; 7,955 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 7,850 Americans named Karley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 23 years old and half are between 16 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Karley is “a female given name from the Germanic languages.”
Modern spelling variant of Carly.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karley?
#3,361 among girls’ names, 2025
Karley fell from #1,320 in 2015 to #3,361 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.10 to 0.03 per 1,000.
317 babies in 2005, the peak
Karley peaked in 2005, when 317 girls were given it, #817 among girls’ names. The 46 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 46 | #3,361 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 48 | #3,310 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 58 | #2,919 | 0.04 |
| 2022 | 73 | #2,478 | 0.04 |
| 2021 | 121 | #1,714 | 0.07 |
| 2020 | 188 | #1,218 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 98 | #1,980 | 0.06 |
| 2018 | 129 | #1,643 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 128 | #1,681 | 0.07 |
| 2016 | 134 | #1,631 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 180 | #1,320 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 162 | #1,412 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 191 | #1,250 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 159 | #1,440 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 215 | #1,139 | 0.12 |
| 2010 | 251 | #1,001 | 0.14 |
| 2009 | 269 | #983 | 0.15 |
| 2008 | 301 | #911 | 0.16 |
| 2007 | 306 | #901 | 0.16 |
| 2006 | 289 | #915 | 0.15 |
| 2005 | 317 | #817 | 0.17 |
| 2004 | 284 | #867 | 0.15 |
| 2003 | 291 | #841 | 0.16 |
| 2002 | 233 | #956 | 0.13 |
| 2001 | 265 | #862 | 0.15 |
| 2000 | 270 | #830 | 0.15 |
| 1999 | 290 | #765 | 0.16 |
| 1998 | 311 | #714 | 0.18 |
| 1997 | 257 | #810 | 0.15 |
| 1996 | 285 | #742 | 0.16 |
| 1995 | 226 | #859 | 0.13 |
| 1994 | 298 | #703 | 0.17 |
| 1993 | 275 | #753 | 0.15 |
| 1992 | 253 | #795 | 0.14 |
| 1991 | 167 | #1,080 | 0.09 |
| 1990 | 90 | #1,644 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 67 | #1,927 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 56 | #2,075 | 0.03 |
| 1987 | 47 | #2,287 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 55 | #1,986 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 53 | #2,031 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 41 | #2,357 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 27 | #3,092 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 26 | #3,292 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 21 | #3,790 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 21 | #3,767 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 15 | #4,721 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,540 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 8 | #7,173 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,281 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 8 | #6,774 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 13 | #4,575 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,327 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 7 | #6,862 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Karley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karley has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 54 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karley, and how old are they?
7,850 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 7,955 Americans ever recorded as Karley. The median Karley alive today is 23 years old; half are between 16 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 6,669 people named Karley (6,655 women and girls, 14 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,387 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 99 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,940 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,260 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,550 |
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 Karley born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #3,111 | 0.8× |
| Missouri | 5 | #1,002 | 1.1× |
Where Karley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karley is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1972 it was given 1.9 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 Karley 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 233,187 babies since 1880, Karley is the eighth most given (3.4% of them). In 2025 it was given to 46 of their 1,050 babies (4.4%), again the eighth most given.
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 Karley
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 Karley and names like it
- Compare Karley and KarlaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKarley peaked in 2005.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karley since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Karley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Karley.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Karley alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.