Carlie
A feminine name of uncertain origin, possibly a combination of "Carl" and "lie".
Name Census estimates that about 14,454 living Americans carry the first name Carlie. It is a predominantly female name (92.0% of registrations). The average person named Carlie today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carlie births was 2004 (593 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carlie. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Carlie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
14K
~ 1 in 23,713 Americans
Peak year
2004
593 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2004 SSA rank
#2,506
Tracked since 1883
Census
Carlie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 13,481 people with the first name Carlie, which placed it at #2,028 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
#2,028
National first-name rank
People counted
13K
13,481 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
4.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carlie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlie is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Black (6.0%). 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 Carlie 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 Carlie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.5% · 10,990
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 872
- Black or African American6.0% · 809
- Two or more races4.2% · 565
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 126
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 119
Gender
Gender distribution for Carlie
Carlie leans heavily female at 92.0% of total registrations, but 1,292 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Carlie as a male name
- Ranked #9,085 in 2004
- 7 male births in 2004
- Peak: 1925 (34 births)
Carlie as a female name
- Ranked #2,506 in 2024
- 71 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (586 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carlie leans strongly female. 13,029 people counted with this name were female (96.7%), compared with 447 male bearers (3.3%).
Popularity
Carlie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carlie from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 4,986 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carlie 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 Carlie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carlies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Carlie, while Vermont, Maine, South Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 283 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carlie
The name Carlie is a diminutive form of the name Caroline, which is derived from the ancient Germanic name Karlmann or Carolman. This name can be traced back to the 8th century and is a combination of the elements 'karl', meaning 'man', and 'mann', meaning 'man'. Essentially, Karlmann translates to 'strong man' or 'manly man'.
The name gained prominence due to the Carolingian dynasty of Frankish rulers, which included the famous Charlemagne (742-814), who ruled as the King of the Franks and later as the first Holy Roman Emperor. His father, Pepin the Short (714-768), was the first Carolingian king and played a significant role in the spread of the name.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Caroline can be found in the 9th century, referring to the daughter of the East Frankish king Louis the German. The name became popular in various European royal families and was later adopted by commoners.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals with the name Carlie or its variants. One of the earliest was Carloman (751-771), the son of Pepin the Short and the younger brother of Charlemagne. Another prominent figure was Caroline of Ansbach (1683-1737), the wife of King George II of Great Britain.
In literature, Carlie is the name of one of the main characters in the novel "The Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann, published in 1966. The character, Carlie Fleckinger, is a young woman who becomes a successful actress.
Other notable individuals with the name Carlie include Carlie Trent (born 1974), an American actress and writer, and Carlie Nochlin (born 1925), an American art historian and academic.
It is worth noting that while the name Carlie is not as common as Caroline, it has maintained a presence throughout history, often used as a diminutive or nickname for the more traditional form of the name.
People
Carlie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carlie 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
Carlie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carlie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 14,454 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carlie 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 23,713 US residents.
Is Carlie a common name?
We classify Carlie as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 16,245 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carlie most popular?
The single biggest year for Carlie was 2004, when 593 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carlie is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carlie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 13,481 people with the name Carlie, or 4.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,028 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 Carlie 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 Carlie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carlie leans strongly female. 13,029 people counted with this name were female (96.7%), compared with 447 male bearers (3.3%). 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 Carlie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlie is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Black (6.0%). 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 Carlie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carlie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.5% (10,990 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 Carlie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carlie a female name?
Yes, 92.0% of people registered as Carlie 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 Carlie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carlie 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 Carlie 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 people are called Carlie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.