Kary
A feminine name derived from the Greek word "kara" meaning "beloved".
Name Census estimates that about 2,861 living Americans carry the first name Kary. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 58.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Kary today is around 51 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kary births was 1971 (108 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kary. 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
- • Kary sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
2.9K
~ 1 in 119,802 Americans
Peak year
1971
108 babies that year
Average age
51
years old
2005 SSA rank
#10,796
Tracked since 1917
Census
Kary in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,162 people with the first name Kary, which placed it at #5,444 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
#5,444
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,162 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
67.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kary
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kary is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.7%) and Black (11.3%). 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 Kary 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 Kary at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White67.5% · 2,133
- Hispanic or Latino13.7% · 434
- Black or African American11.3% · 356
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 121
- Two or more races3.0% · 95
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Kary
Kary is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,378 total registrations, 1,416 (41.9%) were male and 1,962 (58.1%) were female.
Kary as a male name
- Ranked #10,796 in 2005
- 6 male births in 2005
- Peak: 1958 (50 births)
Kary as a female name
- Ranked #11,684 in 2023
- 8 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1972 (76 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kary on both sides of the split. Of the 3,161 people counted with this name, 1,042 were male (33.0%) and 2,119 were female (67.0%).
Popularity
Kary: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kary from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 840 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
Kary 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 Kary during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Kary, while Utah, Indiana, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kary
The given name Kary is a feminine name that originated from the Ancient Greek word "karyon," meaning "nut" or "kernel." It is believed to have been derived from the Greek word "karuon," which referred to the walnut tree. This name was first recorded in the ancient Greek texts dating back to the 5th century BCE.
During the Byzantine period, the name Kary gained popularity as a variant of the name Karyofilli, which means "carnation flower." It was often used as a nickname or a diminutive form of longer names like Karyofilia or Karytsi. In the 12th century, the name appeared in the writings of the Byzantine historian Anna Komnene, who mentioned a woman named Kary in her historical works.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kary can be found in the 14th century, when a woman named Kary Palaiologina was mentioned in the records of the Palaiologos dynasty, which ruled the Byzantine Empire from 1261 to 1453. This suggests that the name was used among the aristocratic circles of the time.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kary. One of the earliest examples is Kary Mustafa Pasha (1637-1683), an Ottoman grand vizier and military commander who led the Ottoman forces during the Siege of Vienna in 1683. Another notable figure is Kary Mullis (1944-2019), an American biochemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993 for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.
In the field of literature, Kary Kwok (born 1954) is a Chinese-American poet and author known for her works exploring themes of identity, culture, and language. Kary B. Mullis (1963-2005) was an American singer-songwriter and musician who gained recognition for her folk-rock compositions and collaborations with artists like Suzanne Vega.
Lastly, Kary Antholis (born 1961) is an American journalist and author who has worked for various publications, including The Wall Street Journal and HBO. She has written extensively on topics related to politics, culture, and international affairs.
People
Kary + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kary 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
Kary: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kary?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,861 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kary 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 119,802 US residents.
Is Kary a common name?
We classify Kary as "Rare". It ranks above 95% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,378 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kary most popular?
The single biggest year for Kary was 1971, when 108 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kary is about 51 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kary in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,162 people with the name Kary, or 1.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,444 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 Kary 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 Kary?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Kary on both sides of the split. Of the 3,161 people counted with this name, 1,042 were male (33.0%) and 2,119 were female (67.0%). 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 Kary?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kary is White at 67.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.7%) and Black (11.3%). 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 Kary most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kary in the 2020 Census, accounting for 67.5% (2,133 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 Kary in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kary a female name?
Yes, 58.1% of people registered as Kary 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 Kary still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kary 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 Kary 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 Kary as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Kary on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.