Carl
243,430 people in America carry this name — ranked #229 of 923.
A name of the post-war decades.
Say it KAHRL
1 syllable · the capitals are the stressed part
Phonetic transcription
K AA1 R L — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.
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People counted 243,430 2020 Census
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Rank #229 Common
The meaning and origin of Carl
Teutonic in origin, reading literally as “man”.
Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.
Carl through the years
506,880 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1956, with 8,343 of them.
Most people carrying it were born in the 1950s. It has been given less often of late.
Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.
What goes well after Carl
One syllable, so a longer middle name gives the whole a rhythm.
Better avoided
- Carl Christopher — same opening
- Carl Larry — runs together
- Carl Luis — runs together
Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.
Going quiet
Carl has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Baby Boomers.
Is Carl used for boys or for girls?
As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.
How Carl is spelled
Names about as common
The nearest entries above and below by number of people.
Who has this name today
- White alone (non-Hispanic) — 76.9%
- Black or African American alone (non-Hispanic) — 15.8%
- Hispanic or Latino origin — 2.5%
- Two or more races — 2.7%
- Asian and Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone — 1.3%
- American Indian and Alaska Native alone — 0.8%
Categories are how people answered the census — a fact about the bearers, not a property of the name. Conclusions are ours, not the Census Bureau’s.
The most common full names
- Carl Johnson ≈ 1,400 people
- Carl Jones ≈ 1,000 people
- Carl Garcia ≈ 800 people
- Carl Miller ≈ 800 people
- Carl Davis ≈ 800 people
- Carl Wilson ≈ 600 people
- Carl Anderson ≈ 600 people
- Carl Thomas ≈ 500 people
The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.
Where in America Carl is thickest on the ground
In Alaska the name is given 2.1 times as often as it is across the country.
- Alaska ×2.1
- West Virginia ×2.0
- the District of Columbia ×1.8
- Louisiana ×1.8
- Mississippi ×1.7
Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.
Try it How Rare Is It?
Where this name sits between household and almost unheard of.
Where this page gets its numbers
- Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
- Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
- Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.
Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Teutonic origin