Carl
Masculine · “free man”
Carl is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 504,827 boys against 3,190 girls since 1880. See Carl as a girl name
Sweden writes Carl where Germany writes Karl, and the difference has held for centuries. The Swedish kings are Carl, the German emperors were Karl, and American records show the two spellings arriving with two different immigrations and staying apart.
How old is the name Carl?
Carl was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Carl alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 235,000 people named Carl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carl most popular?
Carl peaked in 1894, reaching #22 nationally. Today it ranks #1132, 1,110 places below that high. See the whole 1894 chart.
Where it comes from
From karl to Carl
The story of Carl
The name is one of the most-used in European history and English has ended up with three separate versions of it, treated as three names: Charles from French, Carl from Scandinavia, Karl from Germany. A man called Charles in England, Carl in Sweden and Karl in Germany is not carrying variants of a name — he is carrying the same name, spelled by the language that handed it over. American records show the split clearly: the c spelling clusters where Swedish and Norwegian families settled, the k where German ones did, and Charles runs above both of them as the English default.
Meaning
free man
The Germanic root behind the name meant a man of no particular rank — not noble, not enslaved, simply free. It is the same word that gave English churl, which traveled in the opposite direction and became an insult.
How the name formed
- karl
- Carl
Related forms: Carl · Karl · Charles · Carlos · Carlo
Pronouncing Carl
KARL
One syllable, rhyming with snarl. Said the same way in English, Swedish and German; only the spelling moves.
Nicknames for Carl
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19578,192 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #22reached in 1894
- Change vs 2022
- −15.0%187 in 2025, from 220
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Carl in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carl in Swedish — same name
- Karl in German — spelling variant
- Charles in English — related form
- Carlos in Spanish — related form
- Carlo in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Carls among us
people named Carl are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 9,134 born in 2025 was named Carl
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carl
- #1132
- Carl on the 2025 chart
- #647
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carl went to 187 boys in 2025, but Karl is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 294, which makes it the 647th most-given boys’ name of the year — 485 places above the chart.
- Carl187
- Karl107
About 1 boy in 5,810 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,134 for Carl itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Carl has held the top-100 across 10 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Carl is headed
Carl should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Carl beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carl in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, four letters, and no possible mispronunciation.
- It is a standing name across Scandinavia, Germany and the English-speaking world.
- It has an unbroken run in American records from the first year they were kept.
- It works well in front of long surnames, where fuller names get crowded.
- Karl is the other standard spelling and will be written for you regularly.
- It is strongly associated with the first half of the twentieth century in America.
- The spelling is recorded for a small number of girls, though it reads overwhelmingly as a boy's name.
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Carl
Masculine · #1132 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 235,000 people named Carl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carl?
- Carl is the most-used spelling in US records — 187 of the 294 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Karl.
- How popular is the name Carl in 2025?
- Carl ranks #1132 among US boy names in 2025, with 187 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carl?
- About 1 in every 9,134 US boys born in 2025 was named Carl — 187 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carl with classmates?
- Carl will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carl
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Tylan#1132 · Atharv#1132 · Bronx#1132 · Darren#1132 · Eidan#1132 · Ved#1131 · Zakariya#1128 · Lucius#1128
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carl? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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