Carter
Carter is ranked 45th among boys in 2024 (6,267 births). Its best rank was 24th, in 2015, 2017–2018.
- Rank in 2024
- #45up 3 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 6,2670.37% of boys
- Peak year
- 201510,814 births
- Best rank
- #24first in 2015
- Since 1881
- 210,119people given the name
The story in the numbers
200,762 boys have been named Carter in the United States since 1881, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 2015, with 10,814 births — 0.56% of all boys recorded that year.
It is holding steady: its share of births has moved by less than half in either direction over ten years (rank 27 → 45).
Half of everyone given the name was born by 2013, and the 2010s alone account for 47%. It has spent 141 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 21 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 9,357 girls have also been given it, 4.5% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Carter | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 100 | |
| 1890s | 134 | |
| 1900s | 199 | |
| 1910s | 680 | |
| 1920s | 881 | |
| 1930s | 863 | |
| 1940s | 1,340 | |
| 1950s | 1,612 | |
| 1960s | 1,345 | |
| 1970s | 1,360 | |
| 1980s | 1,683 | |
| 1990s | 9,725 | |
| 2000s | 52,320 | |
| 2010s | 95,250 | |
| 2020s | 33,270 |
In 2015, its biggest year
Carter was the 24th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 2015 were Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob and William. See all of 2015.
Names that rose and fell with Carter
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Tritonpeak 2015
- Tenzinpeak 2014
- Tytuspeak 2012
- Camdenpeak 2013
- Khalebpeak 2010
- Karsenpeak 2018
- Brysonpeak 2017
- Zanderpeak 2013
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.