Carter Boy
How popular is Carter?
#45 boy name in 2025
6,024 baby boys were named Carter in the US in 2025, making it the 45th most popular boy name. Another 679 girls got the name (#454 for girls).
Carter popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #45 for boys (▲ 1 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 6,024 boys, 679 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling (-44% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #24 in 2015, #33 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 2015 (10,814 boys) |
| Highest rank | #24 in 2015 (3 years at that rank) |
| First recorded | 1881 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 93% boys, 7% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 5% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Carter counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Carter family of names ranked #35 for boys in 2025 (#33 the year before), with 7,303 babies in all.
| Spelling | Boys in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Carter | 6,024 | 82% |
| Karter | 1,265 | 17% |
| Kartar | 9 | 0% |
| Cartyr | 5 | 0% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Carter is most popular
Babies named Carter per 1,000 boys born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Wyoming: 9.9 per 1,000 (57 boys)
- Maine: 9.1 per 1,000 (177 boys)
- New Hampshire: 9.0 per 1,000 (200 boys)
- Delaware: 8.7 per 1,000 (132 boys)
- Vermont: 8.6 per 1,000 (54 boys)
Carter by decade
| Decade | Baby boys | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 100 | #470 |
| 1890s | 134 | #458 |
| 1900s | 199 | #402 |
| 1910s | 680 | #508 |
| 1920s | 881 | #603 |
| 1930s | 863 | #568 |
| 1940s | 1,340 | #494 |
| 1950s | 1,612 | #513 |
| 1960s | 1,345 | #620 |
| 1970s | 1,359 | #600 |
| 1980s | 1,680 | #564 |
| 1990s | 9,725 | #179 |
| 2000s | 52,320 | #50 |
| 2010s | 95,261 | #24 |
| 2020s | 39,334 | #33 |
Boy names about as popular as Carter
Questions
- Is Carter a boy or girl name?
- Carter is mostly a boy name. Over the last 10 years, 93% of babies named Carter were boys.
- How popular is the name Carter?
- 6,024 baby boys were named Carter in the US in 2025, making it the 45th most popular boy name. Another 679 girls got the name (#454 for girls).
- When was Carter most popular?
- Carter peaked in 2015, when 10,814 boys were given the name. Its highest rank was #24, held for 3 years starting in 2015.
- How many people are named Carter?
- 216,871 babies have been named Carter in the US since 1880. We estimate about 210,581 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 12.
- Where is Carter most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Carter was most common in Wyoming, at 9.9 of every 1,000 boys born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.