Karleigh
Feminine variation of the English name Karla, itself a contracted form of Charles or Karl.
Name Census estimates that about 4,917 living Americans carry the first name Karleigh. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Karleigh today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karleigh births was 2016 (237 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karleigh. 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 Karleigh with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Karleigh is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 69,708 Americans
Peak year
2016
237 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,092
Tracked since 1983
Census
Karleigh in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,850 people with the first name Karleigh, which placed it at #4,721 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
#4,721
National first-name rank
People counted
3.9K
3,850 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karleigh
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karleigh is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Karleigh 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 Karleigh at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.4% · 3,019
- Black or African American9.4% · 363
- Two or more races5.6% · 216
- Hispanic or Latino5.2% · 201
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 19
Popularity
Karleigh: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karleigh from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,126 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karleigh 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 Karleigh during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karleighs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, Georgia recorded the most babies named Karleigh, while Massachusetts, Iowa, Connecticut recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 120 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karleigh
The given name Karleigh is a modern English variant of the Germanic name Karlene, which itself is derived from the Old Germanic word "karl" meaning "man" or "freeman." The name traces its origins back to the early medieval period, around the 5th to 6th centuries AD, when Germanic tribes dominated large parts of Europe.
Karleigh is closely related to the more common name Charles, which also stems from the same Germanic root word "karl." The name Charles gained widespread popularity across Europe due to the fame of Charlemagne, the ruler of the Frankish Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries AD. Charlemagne, whose name literally means "Charles the Great," was a significant historical figure who united much of Western and Central Europe under his rule.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with a name similar to Karleigh was Karloman, the younger brother of Charlemagne, who lived from 751 to 771 AD. Karloman was a Frankish prince and the son of Pepin the Short, the first Carolingian King of the Franks.
Another notable historical figure with a name related to Karleigh was Karlmann, the Duke of Bavaria, who ruled from 628 to 640 AD. He was a member of the Agilolfing dynasty and played a crucial role in the consolidation of Bavarian territories during the early medieval period.
In the 12th century, there was a prominent noble named Karlmann von Jülich, who lived from 1184 to 1218. He was a count of the County of Jülich, located in present-day Germany, and was known for his military exploits during the German campaigns of the Holy Roman Empire.
During the 16th century, the name Karleigh had a variant spelling, Carlyle, which was used by several notable individuals. One such person was Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish philosopher and essayist, who lived from 1795 to 1881. He was a influential figure in the Victorian era and is best known for his works such as "Sartor Resartus" and "The French Revolution."
Another individual with the name Carlyle was Jane Welsh Carlyle, the wife of Thomas Carlyle, who lived from 1801 to 1866. She was a prominent figure in her own right, known for her witty and insightful letters, which provided valuable insights into the literary and social circles of 19th-century Britain.
People
Karleigh + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karleigh 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
Karleigh: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karleigh?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,917 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karleigh 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 69,708 US residents.
Is Karleigh a common name?
We classify Karleigh as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,985 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karleigh most popular?
The single biggest year for Karleigh was 2016, when 237 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karleigh is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karleigh in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,850 people with the name Karleigh, or 1.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,721 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 Karleigh 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 Karleigh?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karleigh appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,844 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Karleigh?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karleigh is White at 78.4%. The next largest groups are Black (9.4%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Karleigh most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karleigh in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.4% (3,019 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 Karleigh in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karleigh a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Karleigh 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 Karleigh still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karleigh 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 Karleigh 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 have the name Karleigh?
Find out how many people share the name Karleigh on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.