Karys
Feminine · “love”
Carys was made in Wales in living memory. Welsh naming spent the twentieth century deliberately reviving and inventing names from its own language, and Carys — built from caru, the verb to love — is one of the clear successes: it went from nothing to entirely ordinary in Wales within two generations. Karys is the American spelling of it, with a k.
How old is the name Karys?
Karys first appears in US birth records in 1994 — 31 years ago. The typical Karys alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 500 people named Karys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karys most popular?
Karys peaked in 2006, reaching #3017 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,191 places below that high. See the whole 2006 chart.
Where it comes from
From caru to Karys
The story of Karys
Welsh cultural revival from the late nineteenth century onward produced a real program of naming: old names were brought back from medieval literature, and new ones were built from Welsh vocabulary using Welsh rules. Carys belongs to the second group and appeared in the mid-twentieth century, becoming one of the most-given girls' names in Wales. It reached English-speaking America recently and in small numbers. The k-spelling is an American habit rather than a Welsh one — Welsh has no k in its alphabet at all.
Meaning
love
From the Welsh caru, to love, with a suffix that makes an abstract noun. The name is a modern formation rather than an ancient one, which is worth saying because it is often presented as old — but the word underneath is entirely genuine Welsh and the construction is regular.
How the name formed
- caru
- Carys
- Karys
Related forms: Carys · Cerys
Pronouncing Karys
KA-riss
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a short first vowel and the y said as a short i. Welsh y in a final syllable is a clear i, which is why the name rhymes with Paris rather than with rise.
Nicknames for Karys
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
- 1994
- Most girls named
- 200656 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3017reached in 2006
- Change vs 2024
- −40.0%6 in 2025, from 10
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.
Karys in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carys in Welsh — same name
- Cerys in Welsh — related form
Karyss among us
people named Karys are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Karys
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Karys
- #13208
- Karys on the 2025 chart
- #800
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Karys went to 6 girls in 2025, but Karis, Carys and Caris and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 160, which makes it the 800th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,408 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 10,045 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Karys 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 Falyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karys's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Falyn climbed just as high around 1982, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Falyn's path sketches the road Karys is walking now.
Karys 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
Karys beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karys in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a genuine Welsh name with a documented and recent origin, which is unusual and traceable.
- The meaning is one word long and about as warm as a meaning gets.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no sound English lacks.
- It is genuinely uncommon in America while being entirely ordinary in Wales.
- Welsh has no k, so the Welsh spelling is Carys and relatives from Wales will use it.
- The y will lead English readers to try a long i, which is wrong.
- Cerys, a related Welsh name, sits close enough to be confused with it.
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What they receive
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Karys
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karyss 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 Karys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Karys?
- Karys is one of 5 recorded spellings. Karis is the more common one — 94 births in 2025 against 6 for Karys.
- How popular is the name Karys in 2025?
- Karys ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karys?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Karys — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karys with classmates?
- Karys will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karys
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karys? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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