Skip to content

The surname Cary

A surname, carried by 11,506 people in the United States.

2 syllables Soundex C600 Also a first name

Cary: #3,138 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Cary #3,138, 11,506 people Cary: #3,138 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Cary #3,138, 11,506 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Cary is more common than 98.1% of them.

Origin

A surname, a less common spelling of Carey.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 11,506 people named Cary in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 26,833 Americans. That is down 4.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 12,013.

#3,138
rank among US surnames
11,506
people in 2010
3.9
per 100,000 Americans
-4.2%
change since 2000 (was #2,756)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#3,129Poindexter11,53126,775
#3,130Coyne11,52526,789
#3,132Ellington11,52226,796
#3,133Krieger11,52126,799
#3,135Troutman11,51926,803
#3,136Tello11,51226,819
#3,137Nielson11,51126,822

Who is named Cary

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

82% of people named Cary identified as white (not Hispanic), 13% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.5% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 82%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 13%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
  • Two or more races 1.7%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Carys

7 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Diana Serra Cary
    American child film actress and silent film historian (1918–2020)
  • Joyce Cary
    Anglo-Irish writer (1888-1957)
  • Alice Cary
    American writer (1820–1871)
  • Phoebe Cary
    American writer (1824-1871)
  • Annie Louise Cary
    American singer (1842-1921)
  • Caitlin Cary
    American musician, born 1968
  • Glover H. Cary
    American politician (1885-1936)

Notable Carys come mostly from the United States (6) and the United Kingdom (1).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Cary

Cary has the Soundex code C600, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C600.

Questions

How common is the surname Cary?
11,506 people in the United States had the surname Cary in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 26,833 Americans. It ranked 3,138th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Cary?
In the 2010 Census, 82% of people named Cary identified as white (not Hispanic), and 13% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Cary?
Diana Serra Cary, American child film actress and silent film historian (1918–2020), followed by Joyce Cary.
Where is the surname Cary most common?
Wikidata records people named Cary in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Is the surname Cary getting more or less common?
Less common. 12,013 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 11,506 in 2010, down 4.2%.
Is Cary also a first name?
Yes. Cary is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.