Carey

Where Carey comes from

* As a German surname, Americanized from Gehrig, Gehring. * As a Welsh surname, variant of Carew. * As an English surname, from placenames derived from Proto-Brythonic *karɨd (“to love”). * As an Irish surname, from mac Fhiachra (“descendant of Fiachra”), from préachán (“crow”). * Also as an Irish surname, from the root of the name Kerry.
— Wiktionary's entry for Carey
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #505 among boys — 13 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1957
    Peak, #353
    461 babies named Carey — more than any year before or since.
  3. 1961
    Carey Lowell born
    American actress
  4. 1978
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #559.
  5. 1985
    Carey Mulligan born
    British actress
  6. 2022
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A placename:
  • A place in the United States, including:
  • An unincorporated community in Childress County, Texas.
  • A unisex given name.
  • A male given name transferred from the surname.
  • A female given name, variant of Cary.
Namesakes
  • Carey Mulligan · British actress, born 1985
  • Carey Lowell · American actress, born 1961
  • Carey Price · Canadian ice hockey goaltender, born 1987
  • Carey Bell · American blues musician, 1936–2007
  • Carey McLeod · Jamaican athlete, born 1998

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.