Karlea
A feminine name of Old Norse origin meaning "peasant woman".
Name Census estimates that about 243 living Americans carry the first name Karlea. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Karlea today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karlea births was 1994 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karlea. 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
243
~ 1 in 1,410,512 Americans
Peak year
1994
15 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2016 SSA rank
#15,246
Tracked since 1986
Census
Karlea in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 262 people with the first name Karlea, which placed it at #32,242 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
#32,242
National first-name rank
People counted
262
262 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karlea
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karlea is White at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Black (9.2%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Karlea 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 Karlea at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.2% · 205
- Black or African American9.2% · 24
- Two or more races6.1% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 3
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 1
Popularity
Karlea: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karlea from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 108 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Karlea remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karlea 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 Karlea 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 Karlea
The name Karlea is thought to have originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic tribes that inhabited Scandinavia and parts of Northern Europe during the Viking Age, around the 8th to 11th centuries AD. It is believed to be a feminine form of the name Karl, which itself is derived from the Germanic word "karl," meaning "free man" or "husband."
The earliest known recorded use of the name Karlea dates back to the 12th century, where it appeared in a Norwegian manuscript as a variant spelling of the name Karlina. During this period, Old Norse names were commonly used across Scandinavia and the surrounding regions, reflecting the cultural and linguistic influence of the Vikings.
In the 13th century, a noblewoman named Karlea Ormsdottir is mentioned in Icelandic sagas as the daughter of a prominent chieftain. She was known for her intelligence and leadership skills, and her name became associated with strength and independence.
One of the earliest documented uses of the name Karlea in a literary work can be found in the 14th-century Icelandic romance saga "Karlamagnús Saga," which tells the story of the legendary French king Charlemagne. In this saga, a character named Karlea plays a pivotal role in the narrative.
In the 16th century, a Norwegian poet and playwright named Karlea Hansdatter gained recognition for her work, which explored themes of love, loss, and the natural world. Her poems were widely circulated and celebrated during her lifetime, and she is considered one of the earliest female writers in Scandinavia.
Another notable figure with the name Karlea was Karlea Gustavsdottir, a Swedish artist and illustrator who lived in the 17th century. Her intricate woodcut prints and engravings depicting scenes from Norse mythology and folklore have been preserved in various museums and collections.
It is important to note that while the name Karlea has its roots in Old Norse and Scandinavian cultures, it has since been adopted and used in various forms and spellings across different regions and languages over the centuries.
People
Karlea + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karlea as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Karlea: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karlea?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 243 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karlea 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 1,410,512 US residents.
Is Karlea a common name?
We classify Karlea as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 248 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karlea most popular?
The single biggest year for Karlea was 1994, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karlea 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 Karlea in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 262 people with the name Karlea, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,242 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 Karlea 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 Karlea?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karlea leans strongly female. 254 people counted with this name were female (98.8%), compared with 3 male bearers (1.2%). 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 Karlea?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karlea is White at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Black (9.2%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Karlea most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karlea in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.2% (205 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 Karlea in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karlea a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Karlea 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 Karlea still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karlea 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 Karlea 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 Karlea?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.