Carolee
A feminine name of American origin meaning "song of joy".
Name Census estimates that about 2,397 living Americans carry the first name Carolee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Carolee today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carolee births was 1943 (266 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carolee. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Carolee is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Carolees were born before 1970.
People living today
2.4K
~ 1 in 142,993 Americans
Peak year
1943
266 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2021 SSA rank
#15,718
Tracked since 1917
Census
Carolee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,545 people with the first name Carolee, which placed it at #4,998 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#4,998
National first-name rank
People counted
3.5K
3,545 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
90.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carolee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carolee is White at 90.2%. The next largest groups are Black (3.3%) and Hispanic (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Carolee described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Carolee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White90.2% · 3,198
- Black or African American3.3% · 118
- Hispanic or Latino2.6% · 93
- Two or more races1.9% · 66
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 43
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 27
Popularity
Carolee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carolee from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 1,338 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carolee by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Carolee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carolees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Carolee, while North Dakota, Montana, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 68 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carolee
The given name Carolee is a feminine name derived from the French name Caroline, which itself has Germanic origins. The name Caroline can be traced back to the Old German name Karlina, a diminutive form of the name Karl, meaning "free man" or "manly".
In the Middle Ages, the name Caroline gained popularity across Europe, particularly in France, where it was used by members of the French nobility. One of the earliest notable bearers of the name was Caroline of Ansbach, the wife of King George II of Great Britain, who lived from 1683 to 1737.
The variant spelling Carolee emerged in the 19th century, likely as an Americanized version of the name. It gained popularity in the United States and other English-speaking countries during the early 20th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carolee is found in the 1920 United States Census, where it appears as the first name of several individuals. However, the name did not become widely popular until later in the 20th century.
Notable individuals named Carolee throughout history include Carolee Schneemann (1939-2019), an American visual artist known for her work in performance art and body art. Carolee Carmello (born 1962) is an American actress and singer who has starred in numerous Broadway productions.
Carolee Sanger (1916-1992) was an American actress best known for her role as Donna Consuelo in the television series The Donna Reed Show. Carolee Glazier (born 1942) is an American author and illustrator of children's books.
Carolee Schneemann, mentioned earlier, was a pioneering figure in the feminist art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, known for her groundbreaking works that explored themes of gender, sexuality, and the body.
People
Carolee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carolee as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Carolee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carolee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,397 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carolee going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 142,993 US residents.
Is Carolee a common name?
We classify Carolee as "Rare". It ranks above 94.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,458 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carolee most popular?
The single biggest year for Carolee was 1943, when 266 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carolee is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carolee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,545 people with the name Carolee, or 1.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,998 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Carolee in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Carolee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carolee appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,553 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Carolee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carolee is White at 90.2%. The next largest groups are Black (3.3%) and Hispanic (2.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Carolee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carolee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.2% (3,198 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Carolee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carolee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carolee in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Carolee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carolee in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Carolee can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Carolee?
Find out how many Americans are named Carolee on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.