Carrington
Feminine · “farmstead of Cara's people”
Carrington is given to both — 2,663 girls and 1,818 boys since 1880. See Carrington as a boy nameSee other names given to both
The -ing- in the middle of Carrington is a group of people. Old English -ingas meant the followers or family of somebody, so a place name in -ington is the farmstead belonging to so-and-so's people, and three elements are doing three different jobs in one word.
How old is the name Carrington?
Carrington first appears in US birth records in 1968 — 57 years ago. The typical Carrington alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 2,600 people named Carrington are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carrington most popular?
Carrington peaked in 2000, reaching #1053 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 5,493 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cara ingas tun to Carrington
The story of Carrington
English place names in -ington are a fossil of a social structure: a group identified by its leader, occupying an enclosure. Washington, Wellington, Kensington, Paddington and Carrington are all built that way, and the middle element is the one people never notice. Surnames followed the places, and American naming has been mining the three-syllable surnames for girls since the 1990s, which is where Carrington, Ellington, Harrington and Addison come from. The name also carried a strong television association from a series that ran through the 1980s, and its best American year is 2000.
Meaningscholars disagree
farmstead of Cara's people
The English places called Carrington, in Cheshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, are read as an Old English personal name plus the connective -ing-, meaning the people or followers of, plus tun, a farmstead. The personal name is variously reconstructed and not secure. The three-part structure, name plus -ing- plus -ton, is one of the commonest patterns in English place names.
How the name formed
- Cara ingas tun
- Carrington
- Carrington
Related forms: Carington · Carrickton
Pronouncing Carrington
KAIR-ing-tun
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The middle syllable is the old group-marker and is fully sounded, unlike the reduced final one.
Nicknames for Carrington
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
- 1968
- Most girls named
- 2000197 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1053reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −29.2%17 in 2025, from 24
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.
Carrington in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carington in English — spelling variant
- Carrickton in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Virginia.
Carringtons among us
people named Carrington are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Carrington
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carrington
- #6546
- Carrington on the 2025 chart
- #935
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carrington went to 17 girls in 2025, but Karrington is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 25, which makes it the 935th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,611 places above the chart.
- Carrington17
- Karrington8
About 1 girl in 64,291 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Carrington 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 Francene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carrington's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Francene climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Francene's path sketches the road Carrington is walking now.
Carrington 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
Carrington beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carrington in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine English place name with an unusually informative three-part structure.
- Carrie is a complete and long-established short form.
- Three syllables gives it more weight than most surname-derived girls' names.
- It carries a strong 1980s American television association for older readers.
- Ten letters will be spelled out constantly.
- The surname-for-girls fashion dates it closely to the last thirty years.
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What they receive
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Carrington
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carringtons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,600 people named Carrington are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carrington?
- Carrington is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 25 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Karrington.
- How popular is the name Carrington in 2025?
- Carrington ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carrington?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Carrington — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carrington with classmates?
- Carrington will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carrington
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carrington? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carrington and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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