Cary
Masculine
Cary is given to both — 24,504 boys and 5,323 girls since 1880. See Cary as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Cary is a river in Somerset, a village named after it, and a family named after the village. It is also the name a young English actor was given when a studio decided his own would not do — he picked it off a list, and it became one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood for thirty years.
How old is the name Cary?
Cary was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Cary alive today was born around 1963, making them about 62 years old. About 18,000 people named Cary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cary most popular?
Cary peaked in 1966, reaching #264 nationally. Today it ranks #3658, 3,394 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cary to Cary
The story of Cary
Archibald Leach came from Bristol, went to America with an acrobatic troupe, and was told by a studio that his name would not work. The list he was given had Cary Lockwood on it; the surname was already taken and he swapped in Grant. The name he chose had been quietly in American use since the beginning of the records, mostly for boys and sometimes for girls, and it became far more widely used after him. That is a straightforward case of one person moving a name, and the timing in the record shows it.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The River Cary in Somerset gave its name to Castle Cary and Lytes Cary, and families from those places took the surname. British river names are frequently the oldest words on the map, older than English and often older than Celtic, and this one's meaning has not been recovered. A separate Welsh reading connects the name to caru, to love, and an Irish surname O Ciardha is a third possibility.
How the name formed
- Cary
- Cary
Related forms: Ó Ciardha
Pronouncing Cary
KAIR-ee
KAIR-ee, two syllables, stress at the front. Cary, Carey and Carrie are all said identically in most American accents, which is why the three spellings signal different things and sound like nothing.
Nicknames for Cary
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
- 1957788 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #264reached in 1966
- Change vs 2022
- −18.9%30 in 2025, from 37
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.
Cary in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Ciardha in Irish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Carys among us
people named Cary are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was named Cary
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Cary
- #3658
- Cary on the 2025 chart
- #746
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Cary went to 30 boys in 2025, but Khari, Kari and Cari and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 183, which makes it the 746th most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,912 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 9,334 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 56,936 for Cary 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 Noel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Cary's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Noel climbed just as high around 1938, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Noel's path sketches the road Cary is walking now.
Cary 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 Cary is headed
Cary should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Cary beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Cary in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a real English river and village behind it as well as a very famous bearer.
- Two syllables, said correctly by everyone on first sight.
- It works for either child, which the record confirms across its whole history.
- Carey and Carrie are both close and Carrie reads as a woman's name, so the spelling gets misapplied.
- The actor is the first association for anyone over a certain age, and it is a flattering one but a fixed one.
- It is strongly associated with the middle of the last century in America.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Cary to the vote.
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What they receive
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Cary
Masculine · #3658 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 18,000 people named Cary are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Cary?
- Cary is one of 6 recorded spellings. Khari is the more common one — 113 births in 2025 against 30 for Cary.
- How popular is the name Cary in 2025?
- Cary ranks #3658 among US boy names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Cary?
- About 1 in every 56,936 US boys born in 2025 was named Cary — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Cary with classmates?
- Cary will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Cary
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jimmie#3658 · Mckinley#3658 · Menno#3658 · Claudio#3658 · Ezekial#3658 · Brandt#3658 · Benuel#3658 · Gustav#3658
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Cary? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cary and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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