# Carl (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/carl/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | not recorded |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /kɑːl/, 1 syllable |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | Karl |
| US babies named this | 508,017 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 504,827 / 3,190 (1% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 3,050, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

From Germanic, cognate with English Charles. * From German and other north European Carl and Karl. * From Latin Carolus.

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 35 | 2,658 |
| 1981 | 32 | 2,787 |
| 1982 | 46 | 2,188 |
| 1983 | 34 | 2,600 |
| 1984 | 25 | 3,338 |
| 1985 | 27 | 3,260 |
| 1986 | 35 | 2,737 |
| 1987 | 30 | 3,115 |
| 1988 | 30 | 3,236 |
| 1989 | 15 | 5,584 |
| 1990 | 6 | 11,627 |
| 1991 | 7 | 10,436 |
| 1992 | 11 | 7,596 |
| 1993 | 7 | 10,786 |
| 1994 | 6 | 12,020 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 426 | 589 |
| 2012 | 487 | 537 |
| 2013 | 446 | 579 |
| 2014 | 436 | 613 |
| 2015 | 457 | 600 |
| 2016 | 445 | 605 |
| 2017 | 415 | 628 |
| 2018 | 345 | 701 |
| 2019 | 319 | 748 |
| 2020 | 286 | 813 |
| 2021 | 246 | 922 |
| 2022 | 220 | 1,013 |
| 2023 | 233 | 964 |
| 2024 | 216 | 1,032 |
| 2025 | 187 | 1,134 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 49 | 662 |
| 2012 | 58 | 606 |
| 2013 | 45 | 720 |
| 2014 | 54 | 632 |
| 2015 | 53 | 646 |
| 2016 | 31 | 946 |
| 2017 | 32 | 943 |
| 2018 | 33 | 897 |
| 2019 | 25 | 1,083 |
| 2020 | 24 | 1,111 |
| 2021 | 11 | 1,984 |
| 2022 | 18 | 1,420 |
| 2023 | 18 | 1,407 |
| 2024 | 10 | 2,263 |
| 2025 | 14 | 1,798 |

## In other languages

- Arabic: كَارْل
- Armenian: Կարլ
- Bulgarian: Карл
- Chinese: 卡爾 /卡尔
- Esperanto: Karlo
- Georgian: კარლი
- Greek: Καρλ, Κάρλος
- Hebrew: קרל
- Hindi: कार्ल
- Japanese: カル, カール
- Korean: 칼
- Latvian: Kārls
- Russian: Карл
- Slovak: Karol
- Ukrainian: Карл

## People named Carl

- Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician and physicist (1777–1855)
- Carl Sagan, American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author (1934–1996)
- Carl Reiner, American actor
- Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, Finnish military leader and statesman (1867–1951)
- Carl Sandburg, American writer and editor (1878–1967)
- Carl David Anderson, American physicist
- Carl Rogers, American psychologist (1902–1987)
- Carl Bosch, German chemical engineer (1874–1940)
- Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (1714–1788)
- Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (1804–1851)
- Carl von Ossietzky, German journalist, author, pacifist and recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize (1889–1938
- Carl Schmitt, German jurist, political theorist and professor of law (1888–1985)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.