Carman
A name of English origin meaning "charioteer" or "one who drives a cart".
Name Census estimates that about 2,310 living Americans carry the first name Carman. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 68.9% of registrations being female. The average person named Carman today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carman births was 1970 (88 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carman. 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 Carman with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.3K
~ 1 in 148,379 Americans
Peak year
1970
88 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2002 SSA rank
#9,560
Tracked since 1901
Census
Carman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,395 people with the first name Carman, which placed it at #5,148 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
#5,148
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,395 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
48.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carman is White at 48.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.5%) and Black (12.5%). 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 Carman 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 Carman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White48.6% · 1,650
- Hispanic or Latino32.5% · 1,103
- Black or African American12.5% · 425
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.9% · 98
- Two or more races2.5% · 84
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 35
Gender
Gender distribution for Carman
Carman is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,491 total registrations, 1,084 (31.1%) were male and 2,407 (68.9%) were female.
Carman as a male name
- Ranked #9,560 in 2002
- 6 male births in 2002
- Peak: 1927 (36 births)
Carman as a female name
- Ranked #13,929 in 2022
- 6 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1970 (77 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carman leans strongly female. 2,821 people counted with this name were female (83.1%), compared with 574 male bearers (16.9%).
Popularity
Carman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carman from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 648 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carman 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 Carman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carmans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. Ohio, Texas, Michigan recorded the most babies named Carman, while Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carman
The name Carman is a variant of the Latin name Carmen, which means "song" or "poem." It is believed to have originated in the ancient Roman Empire during the classical period, where poetry and literature were highly valued.
The name Carmen was derived from the Latin word "carmen," which referred to a song, verse, or incantation. It was often associated with the Muses, the goddesses of arts and sciences in Greek mythology, who were believed to inspire poetry and music. The name gained popularity among Roman families who valued education and the arts.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Carmen can be found in the works of the Roman poet Ovid, who lived from 43 BC to 17 AD. In his famous work "Metamorphoses," Ovid mentions a character named Carmentis, who was a goddess of prophecy and childbirth in Roman mythology. Carmentis was also believed to be the mother of Evander, a legendary king of Arcadia.
The name Carman, as a variant of Carmen, likely emerged later as a result of linguistic evolution and regional variations. It became more commonly used in certain parts of Europe, particularly in areas influenced by Latin and Roman culture.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Carman was Carman de Pise, a 13th-century Italian mathematician and astronomer. He was born in Pisa around 1200 and is known for his contributions to algebra and his work on the Fibonacci sequence.
Another prominent figure with the name Carman was Carman Sylva, the pen name of Queen Elisabeth of Romania, who lived from 1843 to 1916. She was a prolific writer and poet who published numerous works under her pseudonym, including novels, plays, and collections of poetry.
In the 20th century, Carman Rainier was a Canadian painter and artist who was born in 1909 and gained recognition for her landscape paintings and portraiture. Her works are displayed in numerous art galleries across Canada.
Carman Bloor was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 38th Lieutenant Governor of Vermont from 1961 to 1963. He was born in 1901 and had a notable career in public service.
Finally, Carman G. Hunter was a Canadian military officer and engineer who played a significant role in the construction of the Alaska Highway during World War II. He was born in 1903 and received recognition for his leadership and contributions to this major infrastructure project.
People
Carman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carman 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
Carman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,310 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carman 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 148,379 US residents.
Is Carman a common name?
We classify Carman as "Rare". It ranks above 94.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,491 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carman most popular?
The single biggest year for Carman was 1970, when 88 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carman is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,395 people with the name Carman, or 1.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,148 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 Carman 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 Carman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carman leans strongly female. 2,821 people counted with this name were female (83.1%), compared with 574 male bearers (16.9%). 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 Carman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carman is White at 48.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (32.5%) and Black (12.5%). 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 Carman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.6% (1,650 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 Carman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carman a female name?
Yes, 68.9% of people registered as Carman in the SSA data are female. 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 Carman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carman 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 Carman 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 Carman as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.