Carston
Masculine
Carston stands where two roads meet: the Danish and North German Carsten, a local form of Christian, and the long line of American boys' names ending in -ton. Its most remarkable namesake is the Danish surveyor Carsten Niebuhr, the one member of a royal expedition to Arabia who came home.
How old is the name Carston?
Carston first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Carston alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 600 people named Carston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carston most popular?
Carston peaked in 2003, reaching #2922 nationally. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Christianus to Carston
The story of Carston
Carsten grew out of Christian in the dialects of northern Germany and Denmark and became a common name there. In 1761 the king of Denmark sent six men to explore Arabia, and Carsten Niebuhr, the expedition's surveyor, was the only one to survive the journey; he returned in 1767 with maps and careful copies of inscriptions that later scholars used for decades. In the United States the spelling Carston sits beside Carson, Easton and Clayton, and families may have come to it from either direction.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either a form of the Danish Carsten, 'Christian', or a surname-style name in -ton
Carsten is the Low German and Danish form of Christian, 'follower of Christ'. American Carstons may instead follow Carson and the surname names ending in -ton, from Old English tun, 'farmstead'. The record does not separate the two.
How the name formed
- Christianus
- Christian
- Carsten
- Carston
Related forms: Carsten · Karsten · Christian · Karsten
Pronouncing Carston
KAR-stun
Two syllables, stress on the first. In Danish Carsten sounds closer to KAH-sten.
Nicknames for Carston
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
- 1921
- Most boys named
- 200940 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2922reached in 2003
- Change vs 2023
- −33.3%8 in 2024, from 12
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.
Carston in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carsten in Danish — same name
- Karsten in German — spelling variant
- Christian in English — related form
- Karsten in Swedish — same name
Carstons among us
people named Carston 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
Carston 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
The trade-off
- Fits easily among familiar American names like Carson and Easton.
- Has a real European history through Carsten.
- Rare, so a Carston is unlikely to meet another.
- People will hear Carson or Carsten and spell it that way.
- Its meaning depends on which road a family took, so the answer to 'what does it mean' has two parts.
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Carston
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Carstons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Carston are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carston in 2025?
- Carston is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Carston with classmates?
- Carston 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 Carston? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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