Carlin
Feminine · “old woman”
Carlin is given to both — 1,939 girls and 2,626 boys since 1880. See Carlin as a boy nameSee other names given to both
In Scots a carlin is an old woman, and it is the feminine of carl, a common man. On the women's side of this name the word's own gender and the name's finally agree, which they do not on the men's page.
How old is the name Carlin?
Carlin first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Carlin alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 1,800 people named Carlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carlin most popular?
Carlin peaked in 1950, reaching #2436 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 4,110 places below that high. See the whole 1950 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karl to Carlin
The story of Carlin
Old Norse karl meant a free man of the lowest rank, and the word went in two directions in the British Isles: upward into Charles, through the Frankish Karl who became Charlemagne, and downward into churl, which now means a boor. Scots kept it as carl for an ordinary man and built carlin as its feminine, which drifted from old woman toward witch in the way that words for old women reliably do in English. None of that is the source of the given name, which follows the Irish surname. The female side of Carlin peaks in 1950, forty-five years after the male side, which is the usual sequence for a surname name.
Meaningscholars disagree
old woman, or descendant of Cearbhallan
Scots carlin, an old woman or a witch, is the feminine of carl, a man of the common sort, from Old Norse karl. That karl is the same word behind Charles, Carlos and the English churl. Separately the Irish surname O Cearbhallain, anglicized as Carolan and Carlin, comes from a personal name usually read as valorous. The American given name descends from the surname, not the Scots word.
How the name formed
- karl
- carlin
- Carlin
Related forms: O Cearbhallain · Carolan · Carline
Pronouncing Carlin
KAR-lin
Two syllables with the stress on the first and the second reduced. Identical to the man's name; nothing in the sound distinguishes them.
Nicknames for Carlin
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
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 199851 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2436reached in 1950
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%17 in 2025, from 17
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.
Carlin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O Cearbhallain in Irish — related form
- Carolan in English — spelling variant
- Carline in Scots — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Carlins among us
people named Carlin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Carlin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carlin
- #6546
- Carlin on the 2025 chart
- #903
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carlin went to 17 girls in 2025, but Karlyn, Carlyn and Karlynn and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 57, which makes it the 903rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,643 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 28,198 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Carlin 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
The Roselene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carlin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roselene climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roselene's path sketches the road Carlin is walking now.
Carlin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Carlin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carlin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented Irish surname with a famous eighteenth-century composer behind it.
- Carly is a ready and long-established everyday form.
- Six letters, two syllables, and no spelling difficulty.
- The Scots word means an old woman or a witch.
- Carlyn, Karlyn and Carlin all circulate and split the records.
- It is used for both sexes and reads either way on a form.
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What they receive
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Carlin
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carlins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Carlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carlin?
- Carlin is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 57 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Karlyn, Carlyn, Karlynn and Carlynn.
- How popular is the name Carlin in 2025?
- Carlin ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carlin?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Carlin — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carlin with classmates?
- Carlin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carlin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carlin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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