Humanverse

Carrie vs Carvel

American parents have registered 267,540 Carries since 1880, against 520 Carvels. Carrie is still ahead, with 63 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Carrie Carvel

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 2004, when Carrie had 311 and Carvel had 5.

Side by side

  Carrie Carvel
Total US births 267,540520
Most in one year 8,68817
Babies in 2025 63under 5
Estimated living today 164,000190
Median age today 5067
Peak year 19771929
Best rank 28th girls1,848th boys
Rank in 2025 2,719thunranked
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 266,350 / 1,1900 / 520

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 Carvels alive today are over 67; half the Carries are over 50. That is 17 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: Carrie and Carvel.