Carl

Did you know?

A few things about Carl you might not know, from US birth records and Wikipedia. Handy for convincing a partner, or a grandparent.

⭐ Famous Carl

Carl Friedrich Gauss

German mathematician and physicist (1777–1855)

Choose Carl and your child shares a first name with Carl Friedrich Gauss, a German mathematician and physicist. A ready-made answer when someone asks “Carl, like who?” Carl Friedrich Gauss's Wikipedia article is available in 200 languages, a good sign of just how widely known they are.

Read about Carl Friedrich Gauss on Wikipedia ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Photo: Gottlieb Biermann / After Christian Albrecht Jensen, Public domain (opens in a new tab), via Wikimedia Commons

• 👶How commonAbout 1 in every 9,132 baby boys born in the US in 2025 was named Carl, 187 babies in all. In a typical school of 500 kids, your Carl would very likely be the only one.
• 📜HistoryCarl has been in use since at least 1880, the first year US birth records were kept. That's 145 years of Carls, and counting.
• 🏆Best yearIt was far more popular in 1915, when it ranked #22. Today it's #1,132, so it could be due a comeback.
• 📉Then vs nowCarl was 4.6× more common in 2000 than it is today. In 2000 it was given to about 1 in 1,988 baby boys; in 2025, about 1 in 9,132.
• 🍂TrendCarl has slipped 320 places over the last five years and now sits at #1,132. Good news if you want a familiar name that fewer kids will share.
• 📍Where it's lovedCarl is most popular in Kansas, where it ranks #352, followed by Kentucky (#526) and Oregon (#604). It's in the top 1,000 in 11 states.
• 💬MeaningCarl is a German form of Charles, which means “free man”.

About the name Carl

Carl is a boy name meaning “free man”. It has 4 letters and 1 syllable, starting with C and ending in “-arl”. US birth records list Carl for boys from 1880 to 2025, in 146 of those 146 years. Its best year was 1915, when it ranked #22 among boy names. In 2025 it ranked #1,132, with 187 babies.