Karlye
A feminine variant of the masculine name "Karl" meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 373 living Americans carry the first name Karlye. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Karlye today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karlye births was 1992 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karlye. 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
373
~ 1 in 918,912 Americans
Peak year
1992
25 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2013 SSA rank
#17,915
Tracked since 1973
Census
Karlye in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 408 people with the first name Karlye, which placed it at #23,859 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
#23,859
National first-name rank
People counted
408
408 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karlye
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karlye is White at 87.3%. The next largest groups are Black (4.2%) and Hispanic (3.9%). 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 Karlye 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 Karlye at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.3% · 356
- Black or African American4.2% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 16
- Two or more races2.2% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 4
Popularity
Karlye: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karlye from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 158 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
Karlye 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 Karlye 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 Karlye
The name Karlye is a relatively modern variation of the name Karl, which has its origins in the Germanic languages. The name Karl is derived from the Old Norse word "karl," meaning "a free man" or "husband." It ultimately traces back to the reconstructed Proto-Germanic word "karlaz," meaning "man" or "male."
The name Karl gained widespread popularity across Europe in the Middle Ages, primarily due to the influence of Charlemagne (Charles the Great), the King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne's name was actually Carolus in Latin, but it was rendered as Karl in the Germanic languages.
The earliest recorded use of the name Karlye as a distinct variation dates back to the late 19th century, particularly in English-speaking regions. It is believed to have originated as a feminine form of the name Karl, with the addition of the "-ye" suffix, which was a common practice for creating feminine versions of traditionally masculine names.
While the name Karlye itself does not have a long historical record, it is worth mentioning a few notable individuals who bore the name Karl throughout history:
1. Charlemagne (742-814 CE), the renowned King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor, who played a pivotal role in shaping medieval Europe.
2. Karl Marx (1818-1883), the influential German philosopher, economist, and revolutionary socialist whose ideas played a significant role in shaping modern political and economic thought.
3. Karl Benz (1844-1929), the German automotive engineer who patented the first gasoline-powered automobile in 1886, laying the foundation for the modern automotive industry.
4. Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943), an Austrian-American biologist and physician who discovered the ABO blood group system, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930.
5. Karl Pearson (1857-1936), an influential English mathematician and statistician who laid the foundations of modern statistical theory and methods.
It is important to note that these individuals were all known by the traditional Germanic spelling "Karl," while the variation "Karlye" is a more recent and less common form, primarily used as a feminine given name.
People
Karlye + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karlye 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
Karlye: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karlye?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 373 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karlye 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 918,912 US residents.
Is Karlye a common name?
We classify Karlye as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 384 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karlye most popular?
The single biggest year for Karlye was 1992, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karlye is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karlye in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 408 people with the name Karlye, or 0.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #23,859 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 Karlye 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 Karlye?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karlye appears almost entirely female. Of the 413 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Karlye?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karlye is White at 87.3%. The next largest groups are Black (4.2%) and Hispanic (3.9%). 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 Karlye most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karlye in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.3% (356 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 Karlye in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karlye a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Karlye 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 Karlye still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karlye 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 Karlye 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 Karlye?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.