Carry
A diminutive form of Caroline, a feminine name derived from Carolus, meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 820 living Americans carry the first name Carry. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Carry today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carry births was 1975 (43 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carry. 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
820
~ 1 in 417,993 Americans
Peak year
1975
43 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
1990 SSA rank
#7,304
Tracked since 1881
Census
Carry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,388 people with the first name Carry, which placed it at #9,837 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
#9,837
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,388 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carry is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (15.4%) and Hispanic (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 Carry 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 Carry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.5% · 965
- Black or African American15.4% · 214
- Hispanic or Latino5.7% · 79
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.5% · 77
- Two or more races2.6% · 36
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Carry
Carry leans heavily female at 81.9% of total registrations, but 300 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Carry as a male name
- Ranked #7,304 in 1990
- 6 male births in 1990
- Peak: 1964 (14 births)
Carry as a female name
- Ranked #11,202 in 2001
- 8 female births in 2001
- Peak: 1975 (37 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carry on both sides of the split. Of the 1,384 people counted with this name, 373 were male (27.0%) and 1,011 were female (73.0%).
Popularity
Carry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carry from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 278 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carry 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 Carry during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carrys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Mississippi, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Carry, while South Carolina, Louisiana, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carry
The name Carry is believed to have originated from the Old English word "caru," which means "grief" or "sorrow." It is thought to have been derived from the Proto-Germanic word "kara," which had a similar meaning. The name likely gained popularity during the early medieval period in England and other parts of the British Isles.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carry can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of a survey conducted in England in 1086. It mentions a landowner named Carry of Huntingdonshire. The name also appears in several medieval English legal documents and records from the 12th and 13th centuries.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Carry de Bigod was a prominent English noblewoman and landowner. She was born around 1290 and played a significant role in the political and legal affairs of her time.
During the Renaissance period, Carry Bacon (1576-1642) was an English scholar and philosopher. He is best known for his works on natural philosophy and his advocacy for empiricism and the scientific method.
In the 18th century, Carry Wheatley (1753-1784) was an African-American poet and one of the first published African-American writers. Her book, "Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral," was published in 1773 and gained significant recognition.
Another historical figure with the name Carry is Carry Nation (1846-1911), an American woman's rights activist and temperance advocate. She gained notoriety for her militant efforts to promote the prohibition of alcohol, often vandalizing saloons and bars with a hatchet.
While the name Carry has its roots in Old English, it has been used across various cultures and regions over the centuries. Its meaning and significance have evolved, reflecting the diverse historical contexts in which it has been embraced.
People
Carry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carry 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
Carry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 820 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carry 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 417,993 US residents.
Is Carry a common name?
We classify Carry as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,659 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carry most popular?
The single biggest year for Carry was 1975, when 43 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carry is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,388 people with the name Carry, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,837 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 Carry 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 Carry?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carry on both sides of the split. Of the 1,384 people counted with this name, 373 were male (27.0%) and 1,011 were female (73.0%). 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 Carry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carry is White at 69.5%. The next largest groups are Black (15.4%) and Hispanic (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 Carry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.5% (965 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 Carry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carry a female name?
Yes, 81.9% of people registered as Carry 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 Carry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carry 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 Carry 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 common is the name Carry?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Carry at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.