Karl
Feminine · “Free man”
Karl is given to boys far more often — 100,836 boys against 915 girls since 1880. See Karl as a boy name
Karl is the German and Scandinavian spelling of a name that is, at bottom, the ordinary word for a man — and it has spent a thousand years being carried by emperors without ever quite losing that plainness.
How old is the name Karl?
Karl first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Karl alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 800 people named Karl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karl most popular?
Karl peaked in 1969, reaching #2058 nationally. See the whole 1969 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Karl to Karl
The story of Karl
Two things named Karl changed how the world is organized. The first is a system of counting money: Charlemagne fixed a pound of silver, divided it into shillings and pence, and that arrangement — a pound of twenty, each of twelve — ran European accounting for a thousand years and survived in Britain into living memory. The second is a system of counting everything else. Carl Linnaeus decided that every living thing should have exactly two names, a genus and a species, in Latin, chosen by whoever described it first; it replaced a chaos of descriptive phrases, and it is still how every plant and animal on earth is filed. He applied it to himself as well, publishing as Carolus and later, ennobled, as von Linné.
Meaning
Free man
The Germanic word meant a man, and specifically a free one rather than a noble or a bondsman. It became a name, then the name of an emperor, and then a word for a king across half of Europe — while remaining, in German, the plainest name a man can have.
How the name formed
- Karl
- Carolus
- Charles
Related forms: Carlos · Carlo · Charles · Károly · Karol
Pronouncing Karl
KARL
One syllable. German and Scandinavian speakers roll or tap the r; American English does not, and the name survives either way.
Nicknames for Karl
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
- 1915
- Most girls named
- 196937 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2058reached in 1969
- Change vs 1991
- +50.0%9 in 1993, from 6
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.
Karl in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carlos in Spanish — same name
- Carlo in Italian — same name
- Charles in French — same name
- Károly in Hungarian — same name
- Karol in Polish — same name
Karls among us
people named Karl 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
Karl 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 short, strong and understood in every European language without translation.
- The meaning is settled and unusually democratic for a name carried by emperors.
- It needs no nickname and accepts several anyway.
- Carl with a C is the more common American spelling, and his will be written that way.
- The name is closely associated with Germany and Scandinavia, which is either the point or a consideration.
- The spelling is recorded for both sexes, though the boys hold nearly all of it.
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What they receive
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Karl
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Karl are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karl in 2025?
- Karl is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karl with classmates?
- Karl 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 Karl? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karl and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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