Meaning not yet researched.
Karter: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 1,265 in 2025. Its best rank was #162 in 2020.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #162 in 2020; #270 in 2025. About 83% of babies named Karter in 2025 were boys.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#270 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 2020, at #162.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Karter: US boys and girls given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 1,265 boys in 2025. Peak: #162 in 2020 · most boys in one year: 2,425 (2019).
In 2025, 1,265 US boys were named Karter, making it the 270th most common boys’ name of the year, down 22 places from #248 in 2024. That is 166 fewer than the 1,431 boys named Karter in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #162, reached in 2020. The most boys given the name in a single year was 2,425, in 2019. For comparison, it was #183 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
In 2025, 256 US girls were named Karter, making it the 989th most common girls’ name of the year, up 12 places from #1,001 in 2024. That is 1 fewer than the 257 girls named Karter in 2024. Its best rank for girls was #692, reached in 2015. The most girls given the name in a single year was 410, in 2016. For comparison, it was #692 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Karter in 37 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1985 with 5 babies. In all, 34,052 US babies have been given the name, 13% of them girls and 87% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 19,481 babies named Karter.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 19,370 US boys were named Karter; the busiest of those years was 2019, with 2,425. In 2025 that was about 1 in 1,350 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Karter ranked highest in Mississippi in 2025, at #62 for boys there. It was in the top 100 in 2 states (counting DC). Related spellings in the SSA files include Carter (216,871 babies since 1880), Cartier (2,785 babies since 1880) and Kartier (1,910 babies since 1880).
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Karter in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 9 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi | 37 | #62 | #41 |
| Louisiana | 59 | #78 | #59 |
| Georgia | 96 | #119 | #89 |
| Delaware | 8 | #133 | #88 |
| South Carolina | 42 | #134 | #66 |
| Alabama | 42 | #136 | #66 |
| Arkansas | 22 | #172 | #140 |
| North Carolina | 72 | #174 | #120 |
| North Dakota | 7 | #186 | #156 |
| Maryland | 33 | #187 | #123 |
| Montana | 7 | #187 | #221 |
| District of Columbia | 5 | #187 | #150 |
| Oklahoma | 24 | #206 | #185 |
| Missouri | 34 | #210 | #136 |
| Tennessee | 42 | #215 | #129 |
| Ohio | 59 | #224 | #144 |
| Florida | 90 | #235 | #175 |
| Virginia | 37 | #236 | #227 |
| South Dakota | 6 | #241 | #233 |
| Maine | 5 | #251 | #188 |
| Indiana | 32 | #260 | #148 |
| West Virginia | 7 | #279 | #352 |
| Kentucky | 19 | #288 | #186 |
| Michigan | 34 | #291 | #147 |
| Texas | 129 | #300 | #219 |
| Pennsylvania | 38 | #300 | #149 |
| Nevada | 9 | #344 | #343 |
| New York | 50 | #355 | #183 |
| Nebraska | 7 | #359 | #210 |
| Illinois | 27 | #410 | #157 |
| Iowa | 8 | #423 | #172 |
| Wisconsin | 12 | #425 | #193 |
| Washington | 16 | #460 | #339 |
| Kansas | 7 | #493 | #218 |
| Oregon | 7 | #504 | #330 |
| Arizona | 14 | #509 | #449 |
| California | 60 | #512 | #401 |
| Colorado | 11 | #519 | #500 |
| New Jersey | 13 | #557 | #201 |
| Massachusetts | 7 | #661 | #371 |
| Utah | 5 | #755 | #372 |
| Minnesota | 6 | #757 | #351 |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 256 | #989 | 1,265 | #270 |
| 2024 | 257 | #1,001 | 1,431 | #248 |
| 2023 | 303 | #889 | 1,597 | #225 |
| 2022 | 312 | #892 | 1,743 | #217 |
| 2021 | 319 | #861 | 1,919 | #201 |
| 2020 | 297 | #893 | 2,340 | #162 |
| 2019 | 370 | #759 | 2,425 | #163 |
| 2018 | 312 | #872 | 2,239 | #176 |
| 2017 | 351 | #783 | 2,286 | #174 |
| 2016 | 410 | #702 | 2,125 | #190 |
| 2015 | 410 | #692 | 2,286 | #183 |
| 2014 | 274 | #973 | 2,117 | #194 |
| 2013 | 167 | #1,388 | 1,179 | #300 |
| 2012 | 132 | #1,636 | 886 | #349 |
| 2011 | 87 | #2,183 | 727 | #391 |
| 2010 | 94 | #2,106 | 604 | #443 |
| 2009 | 52 | #3,221 | 466 | #567 |
| 2008 | 23 | #6,032 | 362 | #669 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,307 | 268 | #801 |
| 2006 | 32 | #4,519 | 239 | #845 |
| 2005 | 10 | #10,519 | 202 | #894 |
| 2004 | 21 | #5,850 | 143 | #1,108 |
| 2003 | 16 | #7,050 | 139 | #1,107 |
| 2002 | 18 | #6,262 | 101 | #1,321 |
| 2001 | 9 | #10,539 | 102 | #1,295 |
| 2000 | 11 | #8,865 | 57 | #1,863 |
| 1999 | 12 | #7,965 | 42 | #2,218 |
| 1998 | 11 | #8,266 | 31 | #2,681 |
| 1997 | 6 | #12,873 | 39 | #2,213 |
| 1996 | — | — | 26 | #2,874 |
| 1995 | — | — | 19 | #3,495 |
| 1994 | — | — | 12 | #4,962 |
| 1993 | — | — | 14 | #4,356 |
| 1992 | — | — | 15 | #4,018 |
| 1991 | — | — | 5 | #8,887 |
| 1990 | — | — | 9 | #5,600 |
| 1985 | — | — | 5 | #7,074 |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).