Cary

boys’ name · 82%girls’ name · 18%FadedCompare

Cary is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 31 births. Its best rank was 264th, in 1966.

Rank in 2024: —outside the top 1,000
Births in 2024: 310.00% of boys
Peak year: 1957788 births
Best rank: #264in 1966
Since 1880: 29,795people given the name

Babies named Cary, by year of birthboysgirls

The story in the numbers

24,472 boys have been named Cary in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1957, with 788 births.

The name has all but left use: 31 births in 2024, against 788 at the peak.

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1962, and the 1960s alone account for 29%. It has spent 108 of 145 years in the top 1,000.

Cary is used for both sexes: 18% of its bearers are girls (5,323), most of them born around 1975.

Rank among boys, year by year

Higher on the chart = more popularrank (gaps = outside the top 1,000)

By decade

Decade	boys named Cary
1880s	127
1890s	123
1900s	135
1910s	382
1920s	551
1930s	666
1940s	2,807
1950s	5,459
1960s	7,047
1970s	3,599
1980s	1,783
1990s	1,004
2000s	360
2010s	285
2020s	144

In 1957, its biggest year

Cary was the 268th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1957 were Michael, James, David, Robert and John. See all of 1957.

Names that rose and fell with Cary

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

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.