Carole
Feminine · “free man”
Carole is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 110,688 girls against 264 boys since 1880.
Carole is Carol with a French finish. Both are feminine forms of Charles, and both are shadowed by the English word carol — the round dance that became a song — which the name is not descended from but has never quite escaped.
How old is the name Carole?
Carole first appears in US birth records in 1901 — 124 years ago. The typical Carole alive today was born around 1943, making them about 82 years old. About 67,000 people named Carole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carole most popular?
Carole peaked in 1942, reaching #35 nationally. Today it ranks #10107, 10,072 places below that high. See the whole 1942 chart.
Carole appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From karl to Carole
The story of Carole
Charles was a Frankish royal name that half of Europe borrowed, and every language built feminines from it — Carla, Carlotta, Charlotte, Caroline. Carol is the short English feminine, and Carole is the French-looking spelling of it, which American families adopted in the 1930s and 1940s when French spellings carried a particular polish. The homophone with the Christmas carol, from the Old French carole meaning a ring dance, is a coincidence of sound rather than a shared root.
Meaning
free man
Through Charles, from the Germanic karl, 'free man' — the ordinary word for a man of standing below the nobility. The word also became a title: Charlemagne's name was so dominant in central Europe that karl itself became the word for 'king' in Slavic languages, which is where korol and król come from.
How the name formed
- karl
- Carolus
- Caroline
- Carol
- Carole
Related forms: Carla · Charlotte · Carola · Carol
Pronouncing Carole
KA-rul
Two syllables, stress on the first, and identical in sound to Carol — the final e is silent in English. French speakers stress the second syllable instead.
Nicknames for Carole
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
- 1901
- Most girls named
- 19436,506 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #35reached in 1942
- Change vs 2020
- +28.6%9 in 2025, from 7
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.
Carole in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carla in Italian — related form
- Charlotte in French — related form
- Carola in Spanish — related form
- Carol in English — spelling variant
Caroles among us
people named Carole are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 178,585 born in 2025 was named Carole
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 Beatrice test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carole's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Beatrice climbed just as high around 1910, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Beatrice's path sketches the road Carole is walking now.
Carole 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
Carole beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carole in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It sits in the enormous Charles family, so cousins exist in every European language.
- The spelling gives it a distinct written identity while keeping a completely familiar sound.
- Two syllables, no pronunciation risk in English.
- The silent e does no audible work, so the spelling must be given every time.
- The Christmas association is unavoidable in December, whatever the etymology says.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Carole
Feminine · #10107 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Caroles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 67,000 people named Carole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carole in 2025?
- Carole ranks #10107 among US girl names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carole?
- About 1 in every 178,585 US girls born in 2025 was named Carole — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carole with classmates?
- Carole will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carole
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Berta#10107 · Jettie#10107 · Maye#10107 · Osa#10107 · Fidelia#10107 · Alysa#10107 · Su#10107 · Willie#10107
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carole? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carole and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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