Carly is a given name, a feminine form of Carl.^[1] It is also a pet form of given names such as Carla and Caroline. Variant different spellings include Carley, Carlie, Carlee, Carleigh and Carli,^[1] as well as Karly, Karli, Karley, Karlee, Karlie and Karleigh. ^[2]

The name became popular in large part, if not primarily, because of the success of Carly Simon's music in the 1970s – its first appearance in the top 1000 US baby names was in 1973, soon after her first success.^{[citation needed]} It was most popular in the UK, Canada and Australia in the 1980s and in the United States during the 1990s.^{[citation needed]} Over 2,000 American baby girls were named Carly each year between 1991 and 1998.^{[citation needed]}

Carly and its variants may refer to:

• "Carly Phillips", pen name of American novelist Karen Drogin (born 1965)

• Carly Cardinal, mascot for the National Arbor Day Foundation
• Carly Corinthos, on the American soap opera General Hospital
• Carly Manning, on the American soap opera Days of Our Lives
• Carly Morris, on the Australian soap opera Home and Away
• Carly Shay, on the Nickelodeon series iCarly and its revival series of the same name
• Carly Snyder, on the American soap opera As the World Turns
• Carly Wicks, on the BBC soap opera EastEnders
• Carly Witwicky, in the Transformers franchise
• Carly Norris, on the film Sliver