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Kariah vs Karla

American parents have registered 91,895 Karlas since 1880, against 524 Kariahs. Karla is still ahead, with 340 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kariah against Karla, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kariah Karla

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

Karla has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2019, when Kariah had 26 and Karla had 427.

Side by side

  Kariah Karla
Total US births 52491,895
Most in one year 312,066
Babies in 2025 14340
Estimated living today 52084,000
Median age today 1441
Peak year 20131964
Best rank 4,543rd girls182nd girls
Rank in 2025 7,491st799th
First recorded 19911915
Girls / boys 524 / 091,586 / 309

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 Karlas alive today are over 41; half the Kariahs are over 14. That is 27 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: Kariah and Karla.