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Carlyn

#8,460 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Caroline

Carlyn has been given to 4,373 babies in the U.S. since 1900. In 2025 it ranked #8,460 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1992, with 74 recorded.

Babies named Carlyn, 2025

1 in 276,000

Carlyn over time, 1880–2025

GirlsBoys
02040608018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Carlyn: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Caroline

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Carlyn means

Carlyn is a variant of Caroline.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Caroline.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,306 girls were recorded with the name Carlyn between 1900 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 74 in 1992; its best national rank was #952 in 1943.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,352 in 2020 to #8,460 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,512 in 2015 to #8,460 in 2025.

In the United States, 67 boys were recorded with the name Carlyn between 1924 and 1994. Its highest annual count was 10 in 1938; its best national rank was #2,352 in 1938.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Carlyn?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 276,000
12 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 134,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#8,460
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
191,493 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Carlyn sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 191,493 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Carlyn. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Carlyns were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Carlyn was born before 1976 — so the typical Carlyn is around 49 today.

Median birth year
1976
About 49 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
14.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
19.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,239
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 14.3% of all recorded uses (614).

Is Carlyn rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2,014
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−3,108
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−3,948
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.39×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
16.2%
Peak was 1992 (74)
Years since peak
33
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
14.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#952
1943

Spellings of Carlyn

Carlyn is not the most common spelling — Carolyn is, with 28.4% against Carlyn's 0.22%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Carlyn is used

Across 1910–2025, Carlyn was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 50,000 girls, against 1 in 164,814 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

02 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 50,000
  2. 2Maryland1 in 100,000
  3. 3Pennsylvania1 in 100,000
  4. 4Texas1 in 100,000
  5. 5Virginia1 in 100,000
  6. 6Washington1 in 100,000
  7. 7Florida1 in —
  8. 8Georgia1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Carlyn has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Carlyn around the world

Where Carlyn ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • Scotland
    1976–1997
    #653
    in 1997
  • Ireland
    1988–1988
    #492
    in 1988
  • France
    1993–1993
    #2,896
    in 1993
  • Canada
    1991–2023
    #3,197
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1944–1991
    #669
    in 1991

Popularity data from National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Carlyn

People whose public names include Carlyn, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Carlyn by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#8,460
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 3,108
Best rank ever
#952
1943
Peak year
1992
74 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,306
Count in 2025
12

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#2,352
1938
Peak year
1938
10 that year
First recorded
1924
Last recorded
1994
All-time count
67
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Carlyn

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CaralynCarsynCarmelCarilynCarsonCarmaCarlinCarterCarleeCarlieCarrolCarolaCarlotaCarsenJaslynCarinaCarysCarleyCarmynAvalynOaklynJailynCarliCailyn

Names with a curve like Carlyn

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Carlyn, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

JanieceJanettJacquelyneJacquelynnJulienneLucilaSulemaClairRayleneSabraElviaJacquelin

Sibling names for Carlyn

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Carlyn

Top names of 1992, Carlyn's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1943Girls' names starting with C