Karly
Karly was given to 66 girls in 2025, #2,631 among girls’ names; 10,871 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 10,700 Americans named Karly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 26 years old and half are between 18 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karly mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Karly 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 Karly?
#2,631 among girls’ names, 2025
Karly fell from #1,333 in 2015 to #2,631 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 99.7 to 41.1 per million.
427 babies in 1993, the peak
Karly peaked in 1993, when 427 girls were given it, #559 among girls’ names. The 66 births of 2025 are 15% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 66 | #2,631 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 69 | #2,572 | 0.04 |
| 2023 | 69 | #2,571 | 0.04 |
| 2022 | 80 | #2,328 | 0.05 |
| 2021 | 68 | #2,575 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 85 | #2,141 | 0.05 |
| 2019 | 105 | #1,905 | 0.06 |
| 2018 | 119 | #1,732 | 0.07 |
| 2017 | 152 | #1,477 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 177 | #1,341 | 0.10 |
Every recorded year (54)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 178 | #1,333 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 177 | #1,336 | 0.10 |
| 2013 | 253 | #991 | 0.14 |
| 2012 | 218 | #1,128 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 256 | #993 | 0.15 |
| 2010 | 288 | #908 | 0.16 |
| 2009 | 290 | #923 | 0.16 |
| 2008 | 342 | #831 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 262 | #1,014 | 0.14 |
| 2006 | 249 | #1,030 | 0.13 |
| 2005 | 329 | #791 | 0.18 |
| 2004 | 341 | #764 | 0.19 |
| 2003 | 303 | #816 | 0.17 |
| 2002 | 297 | #794 | 0.17 |
| 2001 | 323 | #740 | 0.18 |
| 2000 | 336 | #698 | 0.19 |
| 1999 | 344 | #665 | 0.19 |
| 1998 | 370 | #629 | 0.21 |
| 1997 | 355 | #631 | 0.20 |
| 1996 | 383 | #597 | 0.22 |
| 1995 | 378 | #596 | 0.21 |
| 1994 | 398 | #577 | 0.22 |
| 1993 | 427 | #559 | 0.24 |
| 1992 | 421 | #558 | 0.23 |
| 1991 | 373 | #604 | 0.20 |
| 1990 | 217 | #889 | 0.11 |
| 1989 | 186 | #949 | 0.10 |
| 1988 | 174 | #958 | 0.10 |
| 1987 | 179 | #925 | 0.10 |
| 1986 | 134 | #1,107 | 0.08 |
| 1985 | 163 | #954 | 0.09 |
| 1984 | 150 | #966 | 0.09 |
| 1983 | 117 | #1,141 | 0.07 |
| 1982 | 118 | #1,168 | 0.07 |
| 1981 | 107 | #1,222 | 0.06 |
| 1980 | 96 | #1,322 | 0.06 |
| 1979 | 62 | #1,756 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 70 | #1,560 | 0.05 |
| 1977 | 56 | #1,815 | 0.04 |
| 1976 | 44 | #2,012 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 30 | #2,583 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 47 | #1,863 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 25 | #2,777 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 10 | #5,253 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Karly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karly has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 54 years of records.
Girls and boys named Karly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karly, and how old are they?
10,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 10,871 Americans ever recorded as Karly. The median Karly alive today is 26 years old; half are between 18 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 10,043 people named Karly (9,991 women and girls, 52 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 10,317 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 422 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,830 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,850 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,590 |
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 Karly born?
The states with the most babies named Karly are Texas, California and New York, with 77% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 8 | #2,519 | 0.7× |
| California | 6 | #2,931 | 0.9× |
| New York | 6 | #1,947 | 0.5× |
| Tennessee | 6 | #1,051 | 0.6× |
Where Karly is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karly is most over-represented in Michigan: since 1972 it was given 1.3 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 Karly 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 373,628 babies since 1880, Karly is the eighth most given (2.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 66 of their 1,192 babies (5.5%), the sixth 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 Karly
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 Karly and names like it
- Compare Karly and CarlaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKarly peaked in 1993.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karly since 1910.
- Germanic namesWiktionary’s origin for Karly: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Karly.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Karly alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.