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Karli

Feminine · “free man”

1961high 1994
#2691 in the U.S.given to only a few children a year
rare64 girls in 2025

Karli is a feminine of Karl — a free man in Germanic — and the word gives both 'churl' and the Slavic title for a king.

How old is the name Karli?

Karli first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Karli alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 11,000 people named Karli are estimated to be alive in the US today.

When was the name Karli most popular?

Karli peaked in 1994, reaching #559 nationally. Today it ranks #2691, 2,132 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.

Compare this nameMore “K” names

Lists built from the same records:

I

Where it comes from

The story of Karli

Karl meant an ordinary free man, not a nobleman, and English 'churl' descends from it with a sneer added — yet Charlemagne was so dominant that Slavic languages took his name as their word for a king. Karli is a modern feminine and appears in American records in current use.

Meaning

free man

From the Germanic karl, 'free man' or 'common man', which gives the English 'churl'. Charlemagne's name became the Slavic word for a king — Polish król, Czech král. The Germanic is ordinary and the reading undisputed.

How the name formed

  1. karl
  2. Karl
  3. Karli

Related forms: Karlie · Carly · Karla

Pronouncing Karli

KAR-lee

Two syllables, stress on the first. All the spellings of the sound are said identically.

Nicknames for Karli

Moderate

KarA clipping, used inside families rather than generally
KarlaA related form, and a name in its own right with a large record
II

What the data says

The long climb, and where it stands now

GIRLS NAMED · 1961–202542521304256419612025

US babies named Karli per year from 1961 to 2025
AVERAGE RANK BY DECADE#1#10#100#1000#5591960s2020s

The same years in position rather than babies

First recorded
1961
Most girls named
1994425 — the highest on record
Peak rank
#559reached in 1994
Change vs 2024
+16.4%64 in 2025, from 55
Karli sits in the rare tail. Its best year on record was 1994, with 425 girls. Today it is given to few enough children that it does not enter the ranked charts at all.

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.

Karli in other languages

The same name elsewhere

  • Karlie in English — spelling variant
  • Carly in English — spelling variant
  • Karla in German — related form

Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Louisiana, California.

Karlis among us

11,000

people named Karli are estimated to be alive in the US today

About 1 girl in 25,114 born in 2025 was named Karli

Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method

Spellings of Karli

#2691
Karli on the 2025 chart
#571
counting every spelling

The SSA counts spellings, not names. Karli went to 64 girls in 2025, but Carly, Karly and Carli are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 423, which makes it the 571st most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,120 places above the chart.

About 1 girl in 3,800 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 25,114 for Karli 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

III

Is it right for you

The Jason test

Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karli's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jason climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jason's path sketches the road Karli is walking now.

40%chance Karli will feel dated by 2040
Karli, aligned on its peakJason· peak 1975not yet written
#1#10#100#1000peak-30 yrs+50 yrsJason · #15306Karli today
Karli today is about where Jason stood in 2006 — 31 years past a #559-sized peak. By 2021, Jason had settled around #15306.
Ages quietlysteadyDates fast

Karli 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 Karli is headed

19612030

US babies named Karli per year, 1961 to 2025, with a projection to 2030

Karli is easing off slowly — about 23% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.

Cooling-23% by 2030projected around #3,307 in 2030

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.

Karli beside its neighbors

The names ranked closest to Karli in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.

Karlithis name64#2691Maricela64#2691Zulema64#2691Layana64#2691Meher64#2691

US girls given each name in 2025.

The trade-off

Practical strengths
  • That Charlemagne's name became the Slavic word for a king is a first-rate fact.
  • Karla is available as a related form with a large record.
  • Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
What to consider
  • At least five spellings of the sound are in circulation.
  • The literal meaning is 'common man'.
  • Carly is the commoner spelling.

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What they receive

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Karli

Feminine · #2691 in the U.S.

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Frequently asked

How many Karlis are there in the world?
No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,000 people named Karli are estimated to be alive in the US today.
How do you spell Karli?
Karli is one of 4 recorded spellings. Carly is the more common one — 248 births in 2025 against 64 for Karli.
How popular is the name Karli in 2025?
Karli ranks #2691 among US girl names in 2025, with 64 babies given the name.
How rare is the name Karli?
About 1 in every 25,114 US girls born in 2025 was named Karli — 64 in all.
Will my child share the name Karli with classmates?
Karli will almost certainly be the only one in school.

Ranked beside Karli

Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.

Maricela#2691 · Zulema#2691 · Layana#2691 · Meher#2691 · Cyra#2691 · Aeris#2691 · Adelyne#2691 · Annmarie#2691

Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karli? See the current top 100.

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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology

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