Carla
Masculine · “free man”
Carla is given to girls far more often — 150,390 girls against 425 boys since 1880. See Carla as a girl name
Carla entered the US charts in 1946, peaked at #1809 in 1967, is rarely given in 2025 — given to only a few children a year.
How old is the name Carla?
Carla first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Carla alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 400 people named Carla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carla most popular?
Carla peaked in 1967, reaching #1809 nationally. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Karl to Carla
The story of Carla
The root is the Old High German karl, a free man of no noble rank, which became a personal name and then an imperial one: Carolus Magnus, Charlemagne, king of the Franks from the eighth century. His name spread the stem across Europe, where it settled as Karl in German, Carlo in Italian, Carlos in Spanish and Charles in French and English. Carla is the straightforward feminine of the Italian and Spanish forms, and it moved into American use with immigration from southern Europe and Latin America — which is part of why the name is still strongest in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaning
free man; a man of the common people
From Germanic karl, 'free man' or 'freeman, peasant' — the source of Carl, Karl, Charles and Carolus. Carla is the feminine form built on that stem in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and German.
How the name formed
- Karl
- Carolus
- Carlo
- Carla
Related forms: Karla · Carla · Carlotta · Carlota · Charlotte · Carolina
Pronouncing Carla
KAR-lah
Stress on the first syllable. English speakers often finish it as KAR-luh; Spanish and Italian speakers keep a fuller final -ah. Both are the same name, and neither needs correcting.
Nicknames for Carla
High
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
- 1946
- Most boys named
- 196719 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1809reached in 1967
- Change vs 1994
- −16.7%5 in 1995, from 6
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.
Carla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karla in German, Czech, Scandinavian — spelling variant
- Carla in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese — same name
- Carlotta in Italian — related form
- Carlota in Spanish — related form
- Charlotte in French, English — related form
- Carolina in Latin, Italian — related form
Carlas among us
people named Carla are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Carla sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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What they receive
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Carla
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Carlas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Carla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carla in 2025?
- Carla is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Carla with classmates?
- Carla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carla? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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