Carley is a spelling of Carly, the feminine pet form of Carl or Charles, and means "free woman" or "free man", from the Germanic karl. Singer Carly Simon made the name familiar in the 1970s, and its many spellings peaked around the year 2000. Carley stood at number 411 that year, its best rank, dropped out of the top 1,000 in the following decade and ranks number 2,725 in 2025, with 63 births.