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Karley

#3,361 in 2025Girls' name

Free man, through Carly

Karley has been given to 7,955 babies in the U.S. since 1972. In 2025 it ranked #3,361 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2005, with 317 recorded.

Babies named Karley, 2025

1 in 72,100

Karley over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Karley: meaning, origin, and history

Free man, through Carly

Germanic languages

What Karley means

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

Origin, language, and formation

Karley 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, 7,955 girls were recorded with the name Karley between 1972 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 317 in 2005; its best national rank was #703 in 1994.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #1,218 in 2020 to #3,361 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #1,320 in 2015 to #3,361 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 Karley?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 72,100
46 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 34,900
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#3,361
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
49,955 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Karley 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 49,955 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Karley. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Karleys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Karley was born before 2003 — so the typical Karley is around 22 today.

Median birth year
2003
About 22 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
35.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
59.5%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
7,955
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 35.5% of all recorded uses (2,825).

Is Karley 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
−51
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,143
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,041
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.26×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
14.5%
Peak was 2005 (317)
Years since peak
20
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#703
1994

Spellings of Karley

Karley is not the most common spelling — Karen is, with 41.0% against Karley's 0.33%.

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 Karley is used

Across 2016–2025, Karley was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 2,941 girls, against 1 in 18,851 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in 50,000).

234 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 2,941
  2. 2Louisiana1 in 7,692
  3. 3Georgia1 in 11,111
  4. 4Kentucky1 in 11,111
  5. 5Tennessee1 in 11,111
  6. 6West Virginia1 in 11,111
  7. 7Alabama1 in 12,500
  8. 8Ohio1 in 12,500

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.

Karley around the world

Where Karley 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
    1996–2012
    #4,838
    in 2012
  • Scotland
    2004–2018
    #583
    in 2018
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–1997
    #358
    in 1997
  • Ireland
    2011–2011
    #937
    in 2011
  • Canada
    1991–2023
    #3,391
    in 2023
  • South Australia
    1973–2010
    #801
    in 2010

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Karley in other languages

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

Carley

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

Karley by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#3,361
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,143
Best rank ever
#703
1994
Peak year
2005
317 that year
First recorded
1972
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
7,955
Count in 2025
46

Names similar to Karley

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

KarmenKarsynKarrieKarlieKarleeKarterKarmaKarenaKarisKarolKarolynKarlyKarliKarelyKarimeKarieKarlynKarmynKarymeKarriKayleyKarsonKenleyTenley

Names with a curve like Karley

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

UniqueKayliTaylaKinseyEstefaniaLuceroKiannaJaceyLizethJazmynKaylynElyssa

Sibling names for Karley

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 Karley

Top names of 2005, Karley's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 1994Girls' names starting with K