Kary
The girl's name Kary has been in the national records since 1917, with 3,378 births to its name. It is given to both boys and girls. It has not appeared in the national data since 2023. About 2,900 Karys are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 52.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Kary boys named Kary
Girls and boys called Kary
years more girls than boys years more boys than girls
Kary crossed from boys to girls in 1967, and has stayed there for 21 of the years counted since. At its furthest it was 78% girls, which is roughly where it still is.
The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 48 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 3,378
- Estimated living today
- 2,900
- Median age today
- 52
- Peak year
- 1972
- Best rank
- 1,325th
- Rank in 2025
- unranked
- First recorded
- 1917
- Girls / boys
- 1,962 / 1,416
How old the living Karys are
born that year still alive today
Of the 3,378 babies given the name since 1917, about 2,900 are alive — 86 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1973 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Karys
- Kary Mullis (1944–2019)American biochemist
People named Kary with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Kary is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Kary is most concentrated in California (5.0×), Texas (2.0×), Illinois (1.7×), New York (1.0×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1972
The most popular girls’ names the year Kary peaked:
Related names
Kary against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.