Humanverse

Carleton vs Carrie

American parents have registered 267,540 Carries since 1880, against 4,839 Carletons. Carrie is still ahead, with 63 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Carleton against Carrie, 1880 to 2025 0 2.5k 5k 7.5k 10k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Carleton Carrie

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Carrie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2023, when Carleton had 6 and Carrie had 68.

Side by side

  Carleton Carrie
Total US births 4,839267,540
Most in one year 1038,688
Babies in 2025 under 563
Estimated living today 2,000164,000
Median age today 6050
Peak year 19231977
Best rank 631st boys28th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,719th
First recorded 18801880
Girls / boys 0 / 4,839266,350 / 1,190

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Carletons alive today are over 60; half the Carries are over 50. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Carleton and Carrie.