Carrie
Masculine · “Free man”
Carrie is given to girls far more often — 266,350 girls against 1,190 boys since 1880. See Carrie as a girl name
Two American women called Carrie changed a national argument each, from opposite directions. One took a hatchet to saloon fixtures and paid her fines by selling souvenir hatchets; the other spent thirty years running committees and delivered the vote.
How old is the name Carrie?
Carrie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Carrie alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 500 people named Carrie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carrie most popular?
Carrie peaked in 1893, reaching #538 nationally. See the whole 1893 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Carolus to Carrie
The story of Carrie
Carrie Nation stood six feet tall, called herself a bulldog running along at the feet of Jesus, and destroyed the interiors of saloons in a state where alcohol was already illegal and the law was not enforced. She was arrested some thirty times, funded herself by lecturing and by selling small pewter hatchets, and was disowned by the more respectable temperance organizations, who thought her a liability. Carrie Chapman Catt was the opposite in every way: she ran the national suffrage association twice, designed a state-by-state plan that most of her allies thought too slow, held it together through a war, and got the amendment through. She founded the League of Women Voters a fortnight before it passed.
Meaning
Free man, in the feminine
A pet form of Caroline, which is the French feminine of the Latin form of Charles, from a Germanic word for a free man of no rank. The meaning belongs to the full name; a pet form inherits it and adds familiarity. Nothing in the ending contributes anything else.
How the name formed
- Carolus
- Caroline
- Carrie
Related forms: Karrie
Pronouncing Carrie
KAR-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled r keeps the first vowel short and prevents the name being read as the word car with an ending; it is doing genuine work.
Nicknames for Carrie
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
- 197827 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #538reached in 1893
- Change vs 1987
- −15.4%11 in 1989, from 13
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.
Carrie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karrie in German — spelling variant
Carries among us
people named Carrie are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Carrie sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, warm and impossible to mispronounce, with nothing a small child will struggle with.
- A long formal name sits behind it if one is ever wanted.
- It has been in continuous American use for a hundred and fifty years.
- One horror novel and its film adaptations own the name for a whole generation of readers.
- The record carries it for boys in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- It is a pet form on a certificate and leaves nothing more formal underneath.
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What they receive
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Carrie
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Carries are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Carrie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carrie in 2025?
- Carrie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Carrie with classmates?
- Carrie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carrie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carrie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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