Carson
A masculine name of English origin signifying "son of a bear".
Name Census estimates that about 132,379 living Americans carry the first name Carson. It sits at #123 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (94.3% of registrations). The average person named Carson today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carson births was 2018 (5,466 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carson. 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.
Key insights
- • Carson is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
132K
~ 1 in 2,589 Americans
Peak year
2018
5,466 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#123
Tracked since 1880
Gender
Gender distribution for Carson
Carson leans heavily male at 94.3% of total registrations, but 7,916 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Carson as a male name
- Ranked #123 in 2024
- 2,890 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (5,259 births)
Carson as a female name
- Ranked #1,322 in 2024
- 173 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (447 births)
Popularity
Carson: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carson from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 49,795 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Carson remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carson 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 Carson during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carsons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Carson, while District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 2,570 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carson
The name Carson has its origins in the ancient Scottish Gaelic language, derived from the word "cairsion," which means "marsh-dweller" or "one who lives in a marshy area." This name likely emerged in the early medieval period, around the 6th to 10th centuries, when Scottish clans and families first began adopting surnames and surnames began to reflect their geographic origins or occupations.
The name Carson was particularly prevalent among families and clans that resided in the Scottish Highlands, where marshy and boggy terrain was common. As a result, it is believed that the name initially referred to individuals who lived in or near these marshy areas, potentially indicating their livelihood or occupation was tied to these regions.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carson can be found in the ancient Scottish Gaelic text, the Book of Deer, which dates back to the 9th century. This text contains a reference to a individual named "Cairsion mac Beathad," which translates to "Carson, son of Beathad."
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Carson. One of the earliest recorded was Sir Robert Carson (1589-1661), a Scottish lawyer and judge who served as Lord Advocate of Scotland from 1626 to 1636. Another prominent figure was Christopher Carson (1809-1868), an American frontiersman and trailblazer who played a significant role in the westward expansion of the United States during the 19th century.
Other notable individuals with the name Carson include the American author and humorist Kit Carson (1809-1868), who gained fame for his writings about life on the American frontier, and the Scottish-American industrialist Robert Carson (1867-1931), who co-founded the Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
Additionally, the name Carson has been carried by several influential figures in the fields of science and academia, such as the American chemist Rachel Carson (1907-1964), whose book "Silent Spring" sparked the modern environmental movement, and the British mathematician and physicist Sir Robert Carson (1830-1892), who made significant contributions to the study of electromagnetism.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Carson
People
Carson + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carson 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
Carson: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carson?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 132,379 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carson 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 2,589 US residents.
Is Carson a common name?
We classify Carson as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 137,777 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carson most popular?
The single biggest year for Carson was 2018, when 5,466 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carson is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Carson a male name?
Yes, 94.3% of people registered as Carson in the SSA data are male. 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.