Carl
Carl is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 215 births. Its best rank was 22nd, in 1894–1895, 1915.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 2150.01% of boys
- Peak year
- 19568,314 births
- Best rank
- #22first in 1894
- Since 1880
- 507,825people given the name
The story in the numbers
504,635 boys have been named Carl in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1956, with 8,314 births — 0.39% of all boys recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 215 births in 2024, against 8,314 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1946, and the 1950s alone account for 16%. It has spent 143 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 100 of them in the top 100.
It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 3,190 girls have also been given it, 0.63% of the total.
Rank among boys, year by year
By decade
| Decade | boys named Carl | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 5,227 | |
| 1890s | 8,047 | |
| 1900s | 9,865 | |
| 1910s | 48,454 | |
| 1920s | 69,851 | |
| 1930s | 66,757 | |
| 1940s | 72,739 | |
| 1950s | 78,754 | |
| 1960s | 60,785 | |
| 1970s | 31,370 | |
| 1980s | 25,472 | |
| 1990s | 14,695 | |
| 2000s | 7,197 | |
| 2010s | 4,223 | |
| 2020s | 1,199 |
In 1956, its biggest year
Carl was the 48th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1956 were Michael, James, Robert, David and John. See all of 1956.
Names that rose and fell with Carl
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Raypeak 1926
- Petepeak 1959
- Laurencepeak 1952
- Cliffordpeak 1925
- Boydpeak 1922
- Joepeak 1936
- Nedpeak 1939
- Meltonpeak 1921
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.