Carlye
A feminine name of English origin meaning "from the stony hill".
Name Census estimates that about 1,004 living Americans carry the first name Carlye. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Carlye today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carlye births was 1996 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carlye. 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
1.0K
~ 1 in 341,389 Americans
Peak year
1996
52 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
2017 SSA rank
#14,489
Tracked since 1944
Popularity
Carlye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carlye from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 381 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
Carlye 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 Carlye during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carlyes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Missouri, Texas recorded the most babies named Carlye, while Texas, Missouri, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carlye
The given name Carlye has its origins rooted in medieval England. It is a variant of the Old English name Carlad, which was derived from the Germanic words "carl" meaning "man" and "ad" meaning "noble." This combination suggests that the name initially signified a noble or strong man.
In the Middle Ages, the name Carlye was primarily used in regions such as Northumbria and East Anglia, where Old English dialects were prevalent. The earliest recorded instance of the name Carlye dates back to the 11th century, appearing in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and tenants commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086.
One of the earliest notable bearers of the name Carlye was Carlyle of Beckingham (c. 1130 - 1190), an English landowner and nobleman who held estates in Lincolnshire. Another early figure was Carlye of Arundel (c. 1170 - 1230), a cleric and scholar who served as a canon at the Cathedral of Arundel.
During the Renaissance period, the name Carlye gained popularity among the English gentry and nobility. One prominent individual was Sir Carlye Gresham (1495 - 1556), a wealthy merchant and financier who founded the Royal Exchange in London. Another notable figure was Carlye Browne (1605 - 1667), a Puritan lawyer and member of Parliament known for his involvement in the English Civil War.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the name Carlye was associated with several literary and intellectual figures. Carlye Burney (1752 - 1840) was an English novelist and playwright, best known for her novel "Evelina." Carlye Lamb (1775 - 1834) was a renowned English essayist and poet, known for his collaboration with his sister Mary Lamb on the classic work "Tales from Shakespeare."
Perhaps the most famous bearer of the name Carlye was the Scottish philosopher and historian Carlye Sartor (1795 - 1881), whose works such as "Sartor Resartus" and "The French Revolution" had a profound impact on Victorian literature and thought.
People
Carlye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carlye 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
Carlye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carlye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,004 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carlye 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 341,389 US residents.
Is Carlye a common name?
We classify Carlye as "Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,066 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carlye most popular?
The single biggest year for Carlye was 1996, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carlye is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Carlye a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carlye 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.
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.