Karlo
Masculine · “free man”
Karlo is the Croatian and Slovene form of Charles, a Germanic word that named the free man of the ordinary rank — neither noble nor bound to the land.
How old is the name Karlo?
Karlo first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Karlo alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,000 people named Karlo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karlo most popular?
Karlo peaked in 1985, reaching #2710 nationally. Today it ranks #3658, 948 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karl to Karlo
The story of Karlo
The clearest evidence of Charlemagne's reach is linguistic: his name became the ordinary Slavic word for a king. Croatian kralj, Czech král, Russian korol and Polish król all descend from Karl. Croatian and Slovene took the name itself as Karlo, and it has been in steady use since. It reaches American records with families from the former Yugoslavia and, separately, from the Philippines.
Meaning
free man
From Germanic karl, a free man; Charlemagne's name made the word royal across Europe, and the Slavic word for a king descends directly from his — kralj in Croatian, król in Polish.
How the name formed
- karl
- Carolus
- Karlo
Related forms: Karl · Carlo · Carlos · Charles
Pronouncing Karlo
KAR-loh
Two syllables, first stressed. Every letter is sounded in Croatian.
Nicknames for Karlo
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
- 1959
- Most boys named
- 201039 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2710reached in 1985
- Change vs 2024
- −11.8%30 in 2025, from 34
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.
Karlo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karl in German — same name
- Carlo in Italian — same name
- Carlos in Spanish — same name
- Charles in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Karlos among us
people named Karlo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 56,936 born in 2025 was named Karlo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Karlo
- #3658
- Karlo on the 2025 chart
- #638
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Karlo went to 30 boys in 2025, but Carlo is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 306, which makes it the 638th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,020 places above the chart.
- Carlo276
- Karlo30
About 1 boy in 5,582 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 56,936 for Karlo itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Walley test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karlo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Walley climbed just as high around 1953, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Walley's path sketches the road Karlo is walking now.
Karlo 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 Karlo is headed
Karlo looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 23% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Karlo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karlo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning and one of the longest records any European name can show.
- Charles and Carlos both stand beside it as immediately familiar cousins.
- Five letters and two syllables, quick to write.
- Carlo and Carlos are both far more familiar in America and will be assumed.
- The K spelling marks it as Slavic rather than Italian, which some will not notice.
- It is close enough to Carla to be misheard on a bad line.
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What they receive
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Karlo
Masculine · #3658 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karlos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Karlo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Karlo?
- Karlo is one of 2 recorded spellings. Carlo is the more common one — 276 births in 2025 against 30 for Karlo.
- How popular is the name Karlo in 2025?
- Karlo ranks #3658 among US boy names in 2025, with 30 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karlo?
- About 1 in every 56,936 US boys born in 2025 was named Karlo — 30 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karlo with classmates?
- Karlo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karlo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jimmie#3658 · Mckinley#3658 · Menno#3658 · Claudio#3658 · Ezekial#3658 · Brandt#3658 · Benuel#3658 · Gustav#3658
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karlo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karlo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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