Karson
Karson was given to 690 boys in 2025, #453 among boys’ names; 23,500 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 23,300 Americans named Karson and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 6 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karson by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karson mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Karson is “a male given name.”
Variant spelling of Carson.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karson?
#453 among boys’ names, 2025
Karson fell from #293 in 2015 to #453 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.64 to 0.40 per 1,000.
1,413 babies in 2018, the peak
Karson peaked in 2018, when 1,413 babies were given it (1,345 boys, #265 among boys’ names). The 732 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 52% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 690 | #453 | 0.40 |
| 2024 | 819 | #397 | 0.48 |
| 2023 | 987 | #338 | 0.58 |
| 2022 | 988 | #339 | 0.57 |
| 2021 | 1,090 | #305 | 0.62 |
| 2020 | 1,289 | #266 | 0.75 |
| 2019 | 1,331 | #270 | 0.74 |
| 2018 | 1,345 | #265 | 0.74 |
| 2017 | 1,269 | #286 | 0.69 |
| 2016 | 1,104 | #318 | 0.58 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,226 | #293 | 0.64 |
| 2014 | 1,039 | #328 | 0.54 |
| 2013 | 979 | #332 | 0.52 |
| 2012 | 838 | #364 | 0.44 |
| 2011 | 813 | #366 | 0.43 |
| 2010 | 760 | #380 | 0.40 |
| 2009 | 619 | #448 | 0.31 |
| 2008 | 566 | #487 | 0.28 |
| 2007 | 473 | #542 | 0.23 |
| 2006 | 450 | #560 | 0.22 |
| 2005 | 379 | #597 | 0.19 |
| 2004 | 354 | #605 | 0.18 |
| 2003 | 336 | #617 | 0.17 |
| 2002 | 270 | #679 | 0.14 |
| 2001 | 254 | #703 | 0.13 |
| 2000 | 238 | #725 | 0.12 |
| 1999 | 150 | #961 | 0.08 |
| 1998 | 101 | #1,217 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 78 | #1,405 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 81 | #1,342 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 66 | #1,465 | 0.03 |
| 1994 | 67 | #1,440 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 47 | #1,805 | 0.02 |
| 1992 | 50 | #1,710 | 0.03 |
| 1991 | 31 | #2,313 | 0.02 |
| 1990 | 23 | #2,821 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 26 | #2,508 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 27 | #2,269 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 17 | #3,014 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 12 | #3,761 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 17 | #2,890 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 9 | #4,384 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 15 | #3,000 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 5 | #6,863 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,337 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 12 | #3,511 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 10 | #3,941 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 6 | #5,424 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 7 | #4,675 | under 0.01 |
| 1975 | 5 | #5,897 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 6 | #4,943 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,805 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,246 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Karson a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 23,500 Americans recorded as Karson, 9% are girls and 91% boys. In 2025 it went to 42 girls and 690 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Karson: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karson, and how old are they?
23,300 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 23,500 Americans ever recorded as Karson. The median Karson alive today is 11 years old; half are between 6 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 15,154 people named Karson (1,712 women and girls, 13,442 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 17,513 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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 | 56 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 731 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,660 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 14,800 |
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 Karson born?
The states with the most babies named Karson are Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, with 21% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 57 | #565 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 43 | #289 | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 34 | #345 | 1.1× |
| Florida | 34 | #521 | 0.6× |
| Tennessee | 31 | #286 | 1.4× |
| Mississippi | 31 | #90 | 2.9× |
| Louisiana | 30 | #171 | 2.4× |
| Kentucky | 29 | #196 | 1.7× |
| New York | 29 | #552 | 0.3× |
| Alabama | 28 | #204 | 2.4× |
Where Karson is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karson is most over-represented in Mississippi: since 1966 it was given 2.9 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 boys’ 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 Karson with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Karson?
Karson is a less common spelling of Carson: SSA has recorded 23,500 Karson and 140,887 Carson since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 175,551 babies since 1880, Karson is the second most given (13% of them). In 2025 it was given to 732 of their 4,033 babies (18%), again the second 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 Karson
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 Karson and names like it
- Compare Karson and CarsonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKarson peaked in 2018.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karson since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Karson.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Karson alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.