# Carole (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/carole/  
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 | girls |
| Origin | French |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 110,952 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 264 / 110,688 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 21, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

Borrowed from French Carole.

## 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 16 | 7,819 |
| 2009 | 12 | 9,510 |
| 2010 | 10 | 10,577 |
| 2011 | 5 | 17,287 |
| 2012 | 6 | 15,346 |
| 2013 | 13 | 8,689 |
| 2014 | 11 | 9,678 |
| 2015 | 10 | 10,287 |
| 2016 | 11 | 9,534 |
| 2017 | 8 | 11,866 |
| 2018 | 10 | 9,969 |
| 2019 | 11 | 9,243 |
| 2020 | 7 | 12,401 |
| 2023 | 9 | 10,480 |
| 2025 | 9 | 10,258 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1935 | 14 | 1,944 |
| 1936 | 11 | 2,199 |
| 1937 | 19 | 1,584 |
| 1938 | 12 | 2,095 |
| 1939 | 13 | 1,970 |
| 1940 | 23 | 1,406 |
| 1941 | 21 | 1,493 |
| 1942 | 33 | 1,217 |
| 1943 | 28 | 1,315 |
| 1944 | 17 | 1,688 |
| 1945 | 11 | 2,149 |
| 1946 | 14 | 1,961 |
| 1947 | 7 | 3,124 |
| 1948 | 7 | 3,042 |
| 1961 | 7 | 3,400 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 5 | 2,683 |
| 1997 | 4 | 3,174 |
| 1998 | 3 | 3,848 |
| 2002 | 3 | 4,137 |
| 2004 | 3 | 4,598 |
| 2006 | 3 | 5,061 |

## People named Carole

- Carole Lombard, American actress (1908-1942)
- Carole Bouquet, French actress (b. 1957)
- Carole Landis, American actress (1919–1948)
- Carole Pateman, British feminist, academic political theorist
- Carole Montillet, alpine skier
- Carole Ann Ford, British actress
- Carole André, French actress
- Carole Merle, alpine skier
- Carole Laure, Canadian actress and singer
- Carole Bayer Sager, American lyricist, singer and songwriter
- Carole Caldwell Graebner, American tennis player (1943–2008)
- Carole Shelley, British actress (1939-2018)

## 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.