Carl
A masculine Germanic name derived from Charlemagne meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 248,051 living Americans carry the first name Carl. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Carl today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carl births was 1956 (8,346 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carl. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Carl with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Carl is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 3,190 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Carl have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
248K
~ 1 in 1,382 Americans
Peak year
1956
8,346 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,033
Tracked since 1880
Census
Carl in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 243,436 people with the first name Carl, which placed it at #229 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#229
National first-name rank
People counted
243K
243,436 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
80.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carl
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carl is White at 76.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Carl described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Carl at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.9% · 187,206
- Black or African American15.8% · 38,533
- Two or more races2.7% · 6,510
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 6,163
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 3,156
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 1,868
Gender
Gender distribution for Carl
Out of the 507,825 babies given the name Carl since 1880, 99.4% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Carl as a male name
- Ranked #1,033 in 2024
- 215 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (8,314 births)
Carl as a female name
- Ranked #12,019 in 1994
- 6 female births in 1994
- Peak: 1928 (61 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carl appears almost entirely male. Of the 243,430 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Carl: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carl from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 79,066 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carl by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Carl during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carls live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Carl, while Nevada, Vermont, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9,418 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carl
The name Carl has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the Old Norse name "Karl" and the Old English name "Cærl." These names are believed to have originated from the Common Germanic word "karlaz," meaning "man" or "husband."
The name gained widespread popularity in medieval Europe, particularly in areas where Germanic languages were spoken, such as Scandinavia, Germany, and England. It was often associated with strength, masculinity, and nobility.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carl can be found in the 8th century, when Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great (742-814), was referred to as "Carolus Magnus" in Latin. This powerful ruler of the Frankish Empire played a significant role in shaping European history and promoting the spread of Christianity.
Another notable historical figure with the name Carl was Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), a Swedish botanist, zoologist, and physician. He is renowned for his pioneering work in the classification of organisms and for establishing the modern system of binomial nomenclature used in the naming of species.
In the realm of literature, Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was an influential American poet, writer, and editor. He is best known for his poetry collections, including "Chicago Poems" and "Cornhuskers," which celebrated the lives of ordinary people and the industrial landscape of the United States.
The name Carl has also been associated with notable scientists and mathematicians. Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to various fields, including number theory, algebra, and electromagnetism.
Another prominent figure with the name Carl was Carl Jung (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He is widely regarded as the founder of analytical psychology and is known for his influential theories on the collective unconscious, archetypes, and personality types.
While the name Carl has a long and rich history, it has also been subject to variations and adaptations across different cultures and languages, such as Charles in English and Karl in German. Regardless of its spelling or pronunciation, the name continues to carry a sense of strength, masculinity, and cultural significance.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Carl
People
Carl + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carl as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Carl: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carl?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 248,051 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carl going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,382 US residents.
Is Carl a common name?
We classify Carl as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 507,825 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carl most popular?
The single biggest year for Carl was 1956, when 8,346 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carl is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carl in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 243,436 people with the name Carl, or 80.60 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #229 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Carl in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Carl?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carl appears almost entirely male. Of the 243,430 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Carl?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carl is White at 76.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.8%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Carl most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carl in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.9% (187,206 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Carl in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carl a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Carl in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Carl still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carl in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Carl can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Carl?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.