Baby Name: Carly

A boy's and girl's name that is also a variant of many names including Carla, Carlie, Carol, Caroline and Charlotte. The feminine form of Carl and the German form of Charles that debuted on the chart in 1973 as a fashionable name for girls because of Carly Simon, two-time Grammy Award winning American musician and one of the top leaders of the early 1970s singer-songwriter movement. Carly was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1994, shortly before the name peaked on the charts in 1995. Continues to be a trendy choice because of the up-and-coming young actress Carly Schroeder. Favored because of its "y" spelling combined with the long "ee" sound.