Carlton
Masculine · “settlement of the free peasants”
Carlton is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 48,890 boys against 277 girls since 1880.
Carlton is a free man's settlement. The Old English ceorl meant a peasant with land of his own, and dozens of English villages are named for the class of people who worked them.
How old is the name Carlton?
Carlton was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Carlton alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 29,500 people named Carlton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carlton most popular?
Carlton peaked in 1937, reaching #217 nationally. Today it ranks #2884, 2,667 places below that high. See the whole 1937 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From ceorl + tun to Carlton
The story of Carlton
Carltons and Charltons occur across England, especially in the north and east where Norse influence hardened the ch to a k. The surname came from the places, and it crossed into American given-name use in the nineteenth century alongside Milton, Clifton and Burton. Carlton peaked in American records around 1921.
Meaning
settlement of the free peasants
From the Old English ceorl, 'free peasant', and tun, 'farmstead' or 'settlement'. The ceorl was a specific legal class — a free man below the thegn — and the word later degraded into the modern 'churl'. Carlton and Charlton are the same place name in two spellings.
How the name formed
- ceorl + tun
- Carlton
Related forms: Charlton · Carleton
Pronouncing Carlton
KARL-tun
Two syllables, stress on the first. Carlton and Charlton are said with different first consonants but are the same name.
Nicknames for Carlton
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
- 1957955 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #217reached in 1937
- Change vs 2022
- +16.2%43 in 2025, from 37
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.
Carlton in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charlton in English — spelling variant
- Carleton in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Georgia, Texas.
Carltons among us
people named Carlton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 39,723 born in 2025 was named Carlton
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Erwin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carlton's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Erwin climbed just as high around 1901, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Erwin's path sketches the road Carlton is walking now.
Carlton 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
Where Carlton is headed
Carlton 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.
Carlton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carlton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning names a real and specific legal class of Anglo-Saxon England.
- Carl is available as a short form with an independent record.
- Two firm syllables that pair well with almost any surname.
- The word ceorl eventually degraded into 'churl', which is an odd afterlife for the root.
- It reads as a surname to many people.
- It is strongly period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Carlton
Masculine · #2884 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carltons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 29,500 people named Carlton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carlton in 2025?
- Carlton ranks #2884 among US boy names in 2025, with 43 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carlton?
- About 1 in every 39,723 US boys born in 2025 was named Carlton — 43 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carlton with classmates?
- Carlton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carlton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kamal#2884 · Blu#2884 · Rafi#2884 · Minh#2884 · Shaquille#2884 · Arnav#2884 · Jayven#2884 · Hiro#2884
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carlton? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carlton and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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