Karel
Feminine · “a free man”
Karel is given to both — 1,208 girls and 606 boys since 1880. See Karel as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Karel is Charles in Czech and in Dutch, and in Czech it is not a quiet name. The king who made Prague into an imperial capital was Karel, and his name is still on the bridge, the university and the square. Few forms of a name get to be so completely identified with one city, and none of that weight is audible in the five plain letters.
How old is the name Karel?
Karel first appears in US birth records in 1932 — 93 years ago. The typical Karel alive today was born around 1952, making them about 73 years old. About 900 people named Karel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karel most popular?
Karel peaked in 1939, reaching #838 nationally. See the whole 1939 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karl to Karel
The story of Karel
Charlemagne fixed this name in European history, and every language that had dealings with his empire took a version of it. Czech made Karel, Dutch made Karel, Hungarian made Károly, Polish made Karol. Bohemia then produced its own: Charles the Fourth, king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor, who founded a university and built a bridge in the fourteenth century and is the reason a Czech saying holds that he was the father of the country. American records receive the name from Czech and Dutch families, and it has always been rare here, since English had Charles already and saw no reason to import a second version.
Meaning
a free man
From the Germanic karl, which meant a free man of no particular rank — not a noble, not a servant. The irony of the name is that it became the word for a king across half of Europe: the Slavic král, the Hungarian király and the Russian korol all descend from Charlemagne's name rather than from any word for royalty.
How the name formed
- karl
- Carolus
- Karel
Related forms: Karel · Karel · Charles · Károly · Karol · Carlos
Pronouncing Karel
KAH-rel
Czech puts the stress on the first syllable of every word without exception, so it is KAH-rel and never ka-RELL. The r is tapped rather than rolled. English speakers tend toward kuh-REL, which reverses the rhythm the name actually has.
Nicknames for Karel
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
- 1932
- Most girls named
- 194751 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #838reached in 1939
- Change vs 2007
- +28.6%9 in 2009, 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.
Karel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karel in Czech — same name
- Karel in Dutch — same name
- Charles in English — same name
- Károly in Hungarian — same name
- Karol in Polish — same name
- Carlos in Spanish — same name
Karels among us
people named Karel 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
Karel 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
- It is completely standard in two European countries, so it is a real name rather than a variation on one.
- Charles sits behind it, which means nobody has to be told what the name is.
- Five letters and two syllables, with no sound that an English speaker finds hard.
- It works for a child of either sex in the American record, though the Czech name is a man's.
- English speakers will stress the wrong syllable until told, and being told is the child's job.
- It is often read as a misspelling of Carol or Karla, which is the reverse of what the name is.
- Nearly every child given this spelling in America is a boy, and the Karel of Czech and Dutch is a man's name; a girl carrying it will meet the assumption often.
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What they receive
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Karel
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karels are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Karel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karel in 2025?
- Karel is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karel with classmates?
- Karel will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karel? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karel and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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