Carlea
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly derived from a word meaning "strong woman".
Name Census estimates that about 304 living Americans carry the first name Carlea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Carlea today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carlea births was 1996 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carlea. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
304
~ 1 in 1,127,481 Americans
Peak year
1996
19 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,455
Tracked since 1982
Census
Carlea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 316 people with the first name Carlea, which placed it at #28,429 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#28,429
National first-name rank
People counted
316
316 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carlea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlea is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Black (16.8%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Carlea described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Carlea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.9% · 224
- Black or African American16.8% · 53
- Two or more races5.7% · 18
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 15
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Carlea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carlea from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 115 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carlea by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Carlea during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carlea
The name Carlea is believed to have its origins in the ancient Scandinavian languages, specifically Old Norse. It is derived from the Old Norse words "karl" meaning "man" and "leið" meaning "path" or "way." The name was used during the Viking Age, from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries, and was likely given to individuals who were seen as trailblazers or leaders.
The earliest recorded use of the name Carlea dates back to the 9th century, when it appeared in the Icelandic Sagas, a collection of historical narratives written in Old Norse. One notable mention is found in the Saga of Erik the Red, which tells the story of the Norse explorer Erikr Rauði, who is credited with the discovery and colonization of Greenland.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Carlea was predominantly used in Scandinavia and the regions influenced by Norse culture, such as parts of Britain and Ireland. One famous bearer of the name was Carlea Sigurdsdóttir (c. 1050-1120), a Norwegian noblewoman and landowner who played a significant role in the political affairs of her time.
As the influence of the Norse culture spread across Europe, the name Carlea also found its way into other languages and cultures. In the 12th century, the name appeared in German records as Karlei, a variation of the original Old Norse name.
During the Renaissance period, the name Carlea gained popularity among the literary elite. One notable figure was Carlea Boccaccio (1313-1375), an Italian poet and scholar who is best known for his work "The Decameron," a collection of novellas that became a landmark of Italian literature.
In the 17th century, the name Carlea was also found in the records of the Dutch East India Company, where it was given to a few individuals who were involved in the company's trading activities in the East Indies.
Other notable historical figures bearing the name Carlea include Carlea Eriksson (1790-1858), a Swedish painter and portraitist; Carlea Pettersson (1845-1923), a Norwegian explorer and adventurer who led several expeditions to the Arctic; and Carlea Müller (1898-1982), a German physicist and one of the pioneers in the field of nuclear physics.
People
Carlea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carlea as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Carlea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carlea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 304 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carlea going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,127,481 US residents.
Is Carlea a common name?
We classify Carlea as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 311 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carlea most popular?
The single biggest year for Carlea was 1996, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carlea is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carlea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 316 people with the name Carlea, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,429 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Carlea in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Carlea?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carlea appears almost entirely female. Of the 316 people counted with this name, 99.4% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Carlea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlea is White at 70.9%. The next largest groups are Black (16.8%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Carlea most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carlea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.9% (224 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Carlea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carlea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carlea in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Carlea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carlea in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Carlea can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Carlea?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.