Carey
Masculine · “descendant of Ciardha”
Carey is given to both — 16,880 boys and 12,741 girls since 1880. See Carey as a girl nameSee other names given to both
The Gaelic world named a striking number of people for having dark hair. Carey, Kiera, Ciaran, Duff and Dunn all come from words meaning dark or black, and the reason the trait was worth naming is that in Ireland and Scotland it was distinctive enough to identify someone by.
How old is the name Carey?
Carey was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Carey alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 12,000 people named Carey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carey most popular?
Carey peaked in 1957, reaching #353 nationally. Today it ranks #6446, 6,093 places below that high. See the whole 1957 chart.
Where it comes from
From ciar to Carey
The story of Carey
The O Ciardha were a Kildare family, and their name is one of a large group of Gaelic surnames built on color words: ciar for dark, donn for brown, dubh for black, ban for fair, ruadh for red. Color bynames only work as identifiers when the color is not universal, which is precisely the situation in a population of mixed Norse, Gaelic and Norman descent. Carey reached America as a surname with Irish emigration, became a given name in the nineteenth century, and was used for both sexes through the twentieth. Its best year on the male side is 1957, after which the female use grew and the male use fell.
Meaningscholars disagree
descendant of Ciardha, from a word meaning dark
The Irish surname O Ciardha derives from ciar, dark or black, usually of hair or complexion, and gives Carey and Keary. Competing routes exist: an English surname from a Devon place, and a Welsh one from a river name. All three produced English Careys and none can be assigned to a family without genealogy. The Irish route is the most common in America.
How the name formed
- ciar
- Ciardha
- O Ciardha
- Carey
Related forms: O Ciardha · Cary · Keary
Pronouncing Carey
KAIR-ee
Two syllables with the stress on the first. Identical to Cary and to Kerry for most American speakers, though some accents distinguish the first vowels.
Nicknames for Carey
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1957461 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #353reached in 1957
- Change vs 2022
- +18.2%13 in 2025, from 11
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Carey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Ciardha in Irish — related form
- Cary in English — spelling variant
- Keary in English — spelling variant
Careys among us
people named Carey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 131,390 born in 2025 was named Carey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rolland test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rolland climbed just as high around 1928, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rolland's path sketches the road Carey is walking now.
Carey sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Carey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Irish surname with a clear color etymology behind it.
- Fully unisex, which some families count as an advantage.
- Short, familiar and never mispronounced.
- It has become far more common for women than men in the United States.
- Cary, Kerry, Keri and Carey all sound alike and split the records.
- It reads as a name of the 1950s and 1960s on the male side.
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What they receive
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Carey
Masculine · #6446 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Careys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,000 people named Carey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carey in 2025?
- Carey ranks #6446 among US boy names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carey?
- About 1 in every 131,390 US boys born in 2025 was named Carey — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carey with classmates?
- Carey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rollie#6446 · Billie#6446 · Worth#6446 · Blas#6446 · Starling#6446 · Alvis#6446 · Elwyn#6446 · Rollin#6446
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carey and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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