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Karlee

#1,898 in 2025Girls' name

Free man, through Carly

Karlee has been given to 13,647 babies in the U.S. since 1956. In 2025 it ranked #1,898 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2008, with 511 recorded.

Babies named Karlee, 2025

1 in 32,200

Karlee over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020040060018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Karlee: meaning, origin, and history

Free man, through Carly

Germanic languages

What Karlee means

Karlee belongs to the name family reached through Karlee → Carly → Carl → Charles. Its meaning is “free man”.

Origin, language, and formation

Karlee is used in English. Its origins include Germanic languages.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Carly, Carl and Charles.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 13,647 girls were recorded with the name Karlee between 1956 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 511 in 2008; its best national rank was #583 in 2004.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,036 in 2020 to #1,898 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #696 in 2015 to #1,898 in 2025.

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.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Karlee?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 32,200
103 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 15,600
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#1,898
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
22,311 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Karlee 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 5002%

Put another way: gather 22,311 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Karlee. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Karlees were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Karlee was born before 2005 — so the typical Karlee is around 20 today.

Median birth year
2005
About 20 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
32.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
65.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
13,647
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 32.2% of all recorded uses (4,391).

Is Karlee 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
−193
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−862
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,202
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.25×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
20.2%
Peak was 2008 (511)
Years since peak
17
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Steady
9.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#583
2004

Spellings of Karlee

Karlee is not the most common spelling — Karen is, with 40.0% against Karlee's 0.55%.

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 Karlee is used

Across 2016–2025, Karlee was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 1,250 girls, against 1 in 6,785 across all states with data. It was least common in Massachusetts (1 in 50,000).

280 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 1,250
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 1,923
  3. 3Kentucky1 in 2,128
  4. 4Alabama1 in 2,326
  5. 5Arkansas1 in 2,857
  6. 6Tennessee1 in 3,125
  7. 7Missouri1 in 3,333
  8. 8Ohio1 in 4,000

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.

Karlee around the world

Where Karlee 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.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2017
    #5,765
    in 2017
  • Ireland
    2012–2015
    #896
    in 2015
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,027
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1981–2012
    #563
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Karlee

People whose public names include Karlee, 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.

Karlee in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Karlee. Linked forms have their own page here.

CarliCarlyKarleKarlyCarleeCarlieCarlyeKarlie

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Karlee by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,898
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 862
Best rank ever
#583
2004
Peak year
2008
511 that year
First recorded
1956
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
13,647
Count in 2025
103

Names similar to Karlee

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

KarlieKarrieKarsynKarleyKarmenKaraleeKarliKarlyKarterKarolKarissaCarleeKaileeKarmaKarenaBaileeHaileeBryleeKarisKarinaMarleeKarolynCayleeKarely

Names with a curve like Karlee

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

KaylynnJanessaKaylinKinseyMaceyDevynAnsleyJazmynAyanaJaceyKailynYaritza

Sibling names for Karlee

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 Karlee

Top names of 2008, Karlee's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2004Girls' names starting with K