Humanverse

Carrie vs Carrol

American parents have registered 267,540 Carries since 1880, against 10,319 Carrols. Carrie is still ahead, with 63 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Carrie Carrol

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 1943, when Carrie had 1,142 and Carrol had 352.

Side by side

  Carrie Carrol
Total US births 267,54010,319
Most in one year 8,688352
Babies in 2025 63under 5
Estimated living today 164,0003,600
Median age today 5077
Peak year 19771930
Best rank 28th girls426th boys
Rank in 2025 2,719thunranked
First recorded 18801890
Girls / boys 266,350 / 1,1904,252 / 6,067

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 Carrols alive today are over 77; half the Carries are over 50. That is 27 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: Carrie and Carrol.