Carlee
Feminine · “free man”
Carlee is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 12,982 girls against 308 boys since 1880.
Carlee is Carly respelled, and behind the whole family is karl — a free man, the Germanic word for one who was neither noble nor unfree.
How old is the name Carlee?
Carlee first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Carlee alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 12,500 people named Carlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carlee most popular?
Carlee peaked in 1997, reaching #600 nationally. Today it ranks #1911, 1,311 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From karl to Carlee
The story of Carlee
Charlemagne's Latin name is Carolus, and the karl element spread across Europe with his empire. English made Carly and Carla as feminines of Charles. The respellings multiplied in the 1980s — Carlee, Karlee, Carlie, Karly. Carlee appears in the American registers from that decade in current use.
Meaning
free man
Through Carly and Charles, from the Germanic karl, 'free man' — a real medieval social category. The English 'churl' is the same word with a different history, having sunk in sense while karl rose. The element is ordinary and the meaning undisputed.
How the name formed
- karl
- Charles
- Carly
- Carlee
Related forms: Carly · Karlee · Carla
Pronouncing Carlee
KAR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. All the spellings of the sound are said identically.
Nicknames for Carlee
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
- 1902
- Most girls named
- 2009464 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #600reached in 1997
- Change vs 2023
- −13.7%101 in 2025, from 117
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.
Carlee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carly in English — spelling variant
- Karlee in English — spelling variant
- Carla in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Florida, Ohio.
Carlees among us
people named Carlee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,914 born in 2025 was named Carlee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carlee
- #1911
- Carlee on the 2025 chart
- #756
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carlee went to 101 girls in 2025, but Karlee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 204, which makes it the 756th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,155 places above the chart.
- Karlee103
- Carlee101
About 1 girl in 7,879 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 15,914 for Carlee itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Aletha test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carlee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Aletha climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Aletha's path sketches the road Carlee is walking now.
Carlee 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
Where Carlee is headed
Carlee is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Carlee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carlee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The free-man meaning is concrete and records a real medieval social category.
- That churl and karl are the same word going in opposite directions is a good detail.
- Lee is available as a short form with an enormous record.
- At least four spellings of the sound are in common use.
- Carly is the standard spelling and will be assumed.
- It is closely dated to the 1980s and 1990s.
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What they receive
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Carlee
Feminine · #1911 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carlees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 12,500 people named Carlee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carlee?
- Carlee is one of 2 recorded spellings. Karlee is the more common one — 103 births in 2025 against 101 for Carlee.
- How popular is the name Carlee in 2025?
- Carlee ranks #1911 among US girl names in 2025, with 101 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carlee?
- About 1 in every 15,914 US girls born in 2025 was named Carlee — 101 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carlee with classmates?
- Carlee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carlee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Wesley#1911 · Jazzlyn#1911 · Chosen#1911 · Susie#1911 · Philomena#1911 · Sahana#1911 · Valkyrie#1911 · Lillith#1911
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carlee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carlee and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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