Carlisle
A masculine given name of uncertain origin, possibly meaning "winding landscape".
Name Census estimates that about 1,542 living Americans carry the first name Carlisle. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 79.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Carlisle today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carlisle births was 2010 (62 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carlisle. 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 Carlisle with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 222,279 Americans
Peak year
2010
62 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,271
Tracked since 1888
Census
Carlisle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,418 people with the first name Carlisle, which placed it at #9,702 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
#9,702
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,418 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carlisle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlisle is White at 61.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 Carlisle 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 Carlisle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.8% · 877
- Black or African American21.1% · 299
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 85
- Two or more races5.4% · 76
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.8% · 54
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 27
Gender
Gender distribution for Carlisle
Carlisle is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 2,284 total registrations, 1,826 (79.9%) were male and 458 (20.1%) were female.
Carlisle as a male name
- Ranked #3,271 in 2024
- 36 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (47 births)
Carlisle as a female name
- Ranked #8,521 in 2024
- 12 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carlisle on both sides of the split. Of the 1,425 people counted with this name, 946 were male (66.4%) and 479 were female (33.6%).
Popularity
Carlisle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carlisle from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 498 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Carlisle remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carlisle 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 Carlisle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carlisles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. South Carolina, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Carlisle, while Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 27 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carlisle
The name Carlisle originated in the medieval English town of the same name, located in the county of Cumbria in the northwest of England. The name is derived from the Old English words "cær" meaning "fort" and "lēah" meaning "clearing" or "meadow", referring to the strategic location of the town as a walled settlement in a clearing.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Carlisle comes from the Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in the 8th century AD. Bede mentions the town of Carlisle (referred to as Caer Luel) as the site of an important battle between the Britons and the Angles in the 7th century.
In the Middle Ages, the name Carlisle became associated with the powerful bishopric and cathedral city of the same name. The Bishop of Carlisle was an influential figure in the region, and the name may have been adopted as a given name by those with connections to the city or the bishopric.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Carlisle was Carlisle of Bury St Edmunds, a 12th-century monk and hagiographer who wrote a life of St Edmund, the patron saint of the town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, England.
Another notable bearer of the name was Carlisle Floyd (1926-2021), an American opera composer and librettist best known for his operas Susannah and Of Mice and Men. His works are celebrated for their incorporation of American themes and settings.
In the realm of literature, Carlisle Cullen is a character in the popular Twilight series of novels by Stephenie Meyer. He is a member of the Cullen family of vampires and is portrayed as a compassionate and highly skilled doctor.
Sir Carlisle Spedding (1888-1936) was a British soldier and colonial administrator who served as the Governor of Fiji from 1933 to 1936. He played a key role in the development of the island nation during his tenure.
One of the earliest recorded female bearers of the name was Carlisle Pollock Floyd (1915-1982), an American painter and artist known for her abstract expressionist works. She was part of the influential New York School of artists in the mid-20th century.
People
Carlisle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carlisle 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
Carlisle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carlisle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,542 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carlisle 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 222,279 US residents.
Is Carlisle a common name?
We classify Carlisle as "Rare". It ranks above 92.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,284 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carlisle most popular?
The single biggest year for Carlisle was 2010, when 62 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carlisle is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carlisle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,418 people with the name Carlisle, or 0.47 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,702 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 Carlisle 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 Carlisle?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carlisle on both sides of the split. Of the 1,425 people counted with this name, 946 were male (66.4%) and 479 were female (33.6%). 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 Carlisle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlisle is White at 61.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (6.0%). 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 Carlisle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carlisle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.8% (877 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 Carlisle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carlisle a male name?
Yes, 79.9% of people registered as Carlisle 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 Carlisle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carlisle 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 Carlisle 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 Carlisle as a first name?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Carlisle at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.