Humanverse

Carlyon vs Carrie

American parents have registered 267,540 Carries since 1880, against 513 Carlyons. Carrie is still ahead, with 63 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Carlyon 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 1946, when Carlyon had 26 and Carrie had 1,082.

Side by side

  Carlyon Carrie
Total US births 513267,540
Most in one year 268,688
Babies in 2025 under 563
Estimated living today 370164,000
Median age today 7150
Peak year 19461977
Best rank 1,771st girls28th girls
Rank in 2025 unranked2,719th
First recorded 19301880
Girls / boys 513 / 0266,350 / 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 Carlyons alive today are over 71; half the Carries are over 50. That is 21 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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