Kary
given name · Latin script
Meaning: variant spelling of Carey
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈkɛɹi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Kary is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country.
- USUnited States1 in 105K(measured from records)
- MRMauritania≈1 in 2.7K
- HKHong Kong≈1 in 4.2K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- Sources
- 312 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 2.7K (inferred from the name graph)
≈35,000 people, est.
Highest-authority source
Mauritania, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
variant spelling of Carey.
Sources 1
- Dictionary of American Family Names
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kary counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈35,000 est. | ≈1 in 40K | — | Kary | 14 |
| US United States | — | 3,161 | 1 in 105K | 2.1K | Kary | 312 |
| HK Hong Kong | #407 | ≈1,700 est. | ≈1 in 4.2K | — | Kary | 25 |
| MR Mauritania | #153 | ≈1,500 est. | ≈1 in 2.7K | — | Kary | 1 |
| PE Peru | — | ≈1,100 est. | ≈1 in 29K | — | Kary | 29 |
| DZ Algeria | — | ≈810 est. | ≈1 in 53K | — | Kary | 7 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Kary is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Polish, black (of horse)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Malagasy, wild cat
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Kary H Laschb. 1914SESwedish photographer (1914–1993)
- Kary Fabianb. 1921CZHolocaust victim (born 1921)
- Kary Barnetb. 1923DEGerman singer (1923-1972)
- Kary Mullisb. 1944USAmerican biochemist (1944–2019)
- Kary Antholisb. 1962USAmerican filmmaker
- Kary Mariscalb. 1976BOBolivian politician (born 1976)
- Kary Osmondb. 1979CACanadian chef
- Kary Ngb. 1986CNHong Kong singer
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 40 sources across 21 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 2.1K | #5,441 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1K | #5,441 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1972 | 76 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1971 | 67 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1975 | 65 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1977 | 64 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1967 | 60 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2023 | 8 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2005 | 6 | — |
Reference works 6
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Kary mean, and where does it come from?
- variant spelling of Carey. Recorded by Dictionary of American Family Names.
- How do you pronounce Kary?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkɛɹi/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Kary a male or female name?
- Kary is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- In which country does Kary have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 35 thousand people named Kary in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled kary.
- How common is the name Kary?
- In the United States, the national register counted 3,161 people named Kary in 2020, about 1 in 105 thousand residents.
- How common is Kary compared with other names?
- In Mauritania, Kary is the 153rd most common given name of 605 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Kary?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/karyThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Kary” — the 153rd most common given name in Mauritania. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.