Karter
Derived from the English word "carter", referring to a transporter of goods.
Name Census estimates that about 32,274 living Americans carry the first name Karter. It sits at #248 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 86.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Karter today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karter births was 2019 (2,794 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karter. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Karter with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Karter is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 9 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
32K
~ 1 in 10,620 Americans
Peak year
2019
2,794 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#248
Tracked since 1985
Census
Karter in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,796 people with the first name Karter, which placed it at #1,722 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
#1,722
National first-name rank
People counted
18K
17,796 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
42.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karter
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karter is White at 42.3%. The next largest groups are Black (42.0%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Karter 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 Karter at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White42.3% · 7,533
- Black or African American42.0% · 7,477
- Two or more races8.2% · 1,467
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 1,004
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 166
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 149
Gender
Gender distribution for Karter
Karter leans heavily male at 86.7% of total registrations, but 4,330 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Karter as a male name
- Ranked #248 in 2024
- 1,425 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (2,424 births)
Karter as a female name
- Ranked #999 in 2024
- 257 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (410 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karter leans strongly male. 15,437 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 2,358 female bearers (13.3%).
Popularity
Karter: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karter from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 19,477 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Karter remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karter 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 Karter during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karters live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Florida recorded the most babies named Karter, while Wyoming, Rhode Island, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 612 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karter
The name Karter is a relatively modern English name that originated as a surname derived from the occupational term "carter," referring to someone who drove a cart or wagon. This surname likely emerged in the Middle Ages, as the use of horse-drawn carts and wagons for transportation became more widespread.
The name Karter itself has no direct linguistic roots in ancient languages or cultures. However, its origins can be traced back to the Old English word "cræt," which meant "cart" or "wagon." Over time, this word evolved into the Middle English term "carter," denoting a person whose occupation involved driving or handling carts.
While there are no historical references to the name Karter in ancient texts or religious scriptures, some of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Carter can be found in Medieval English records and documents. One notable example is William le Carter, who was mentioned in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire in 1273.
As a given name, Karter likely emerged in the late 20th or early 21st century as a modern variation of the traditional surname Carter. It gained popularity as parents sought unique and distinctive names for their children, often drawing inspiration from occupational surnames or other unconventional sources.
Throughout history, there have been several notable figures who bore the surname Carter, but fewer individuals with the given name Karter. Here are five examples of people with the first name Karter:
1. Karter Schult (born 2007) - An American child actor known for his roles in various television shows and films.
2. Karter Hodge (born 2005) - An American football player who played as a linebacker for the University of Colorado Boulder.
3. Karter Chavis (born 2008) - An American child actor known for his role in the film "Just Mercy" (2019).
4. Karter Lathrop (born 2009) - An American child model and actor who has appeared in various commercials and television shows.
5. Karter Jones (born 2010) - An American child actor known for his role in the film "The Hangover Part III" (2013).
It's important to note that the name Karter, being a relatively modern invention, has limited historical significance or records compared to more traditional names with deeper roots in different cultures and languages.
People
Karter + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karter as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Karter: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karter?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 32,274 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karter 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 10,620 US residents.
Is Karter a common name?
We classify Karter as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 32,517 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karter most popular?
The single biggest year for Karter was 2019, when 2,794 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karter is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karter in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,796 people with the name Karter, or 5.89 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,722 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 Karter 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 Karter?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karter leans strongly male. 15,437 people counted with this name were male (86.7%), compared with 2,358 female bearers (13.3%). 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 Karter?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karter is White at 42.3%. The next largest groups are Black (42.0%) and Two or More Races (8.2%). 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 Karter most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karter in the 2020 Census, accounting for 42.3% (7,533 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 Karter in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karter a male name?
Yes, 86.7% of people registered as Karter in the SSA data are male. 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 Karter still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karter 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 Karter 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 Karter?
You can see how many people have the name Karter on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.