Carrington
Masculine · “farmstead of Cara's people”
Carrington is given to both — 1,818 boys and 2,663 girls since 1880. See Carrington as a girl nameSee other names given to both
The Carringtons of the television series ran from 1981 to 1989, and the male row of this name peaks in 1990, immediately after. The female row peaks ten years later, which is the ordinary sequence: a surname arrives on boys and crosses to girls a decade behind.
How old is the name Carrington?
Carrington first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Carrington alive today was born around 1996, making them about 29 years old. About 1,600 people named Carrington are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carrington most popular?
Carrington peaked in 1990, reaching #1294 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 5,509 places below that high. See the whole 1990 chart.
Where it comes from
From Cara ingas tun to Carrington
The story of Carrington
American naming took a great many three-syllable English surnames for boys in the 1980s, and Carrington arrived among them with a considerable boost from a prime-time series in which the surname belonged to an oil dynasty. The male row peaks in 1990 and the female row in 2000, which is the standard interval; a surname name spends about a decade as a boys' name before crossing, and once it crosses the boys begin to leave. What is unusual here is only that both rows are small enough to see the whole shape clearly, which is not the case for Ashley or Whitney, where the crossover was overwhelming.
Meaningscholars disagree
farmstead of Cara's people
The English places called Carrington 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 middle element is the same one in Washington, Wellington and Kensington.
How the name formed
- Cara ingas tun
- Carrington
- Carrington
Related forms: Carington
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.
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 199989 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1294reached in 1990
- Change vs 2023
- +9.1%12 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.
Carrington in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carington in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Carringtons among us
people named Carrington are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Carrington
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carrington
- #6803
- Carrington on the 2025 chart
- #908
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carrington went to 12 boys in 2025, but Karrington is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 20, which makes it the 908th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,895 places above the chart.
- Carrington12
- Karrington8
About 1 boy in 85,404 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 142,340 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 Derric 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: Derric climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Derric'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 boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine English place name with an unusually informative structure.
- Carr and Cary are two short forms in different registers.
- Three syllables give it a formality most modern boys' names lack.
- It is now more common for girls than boys in the United States.
- Ten letters will be spelled out constantly.
- The 1980s television association is strong for older readers.
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Carrington
Masculine · #6803 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 1,600 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 — 12 of the 20 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Karrington.
- How popular is the name Carrington in 2025?
- Carrington ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carrington?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Carrington — 12 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.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carrington? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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