Carle
A short form of Charles, a masculine name derived from the Germanic name Karl meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 310 living Americans carry the first name Carle. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 76.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Carle today is around 58 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carle births was 1920 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carle. 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.
Key insights
- • Carle started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
310
~ 1 in 1,105,659 Americans
Peak year
1920
20 babies that year
Average age
58
years old
1982 SSA rank
#5,733
Tracked since 1904
Census
Carle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 521 people with the first name Carle, which placed it at #19,995 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
#19,995
National first-name rank
People counted
521
521 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carle is White at 65.6%. The next largest groups are Black (22.5%) and Hispanic (6.7%). 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 Carle 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 Carle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.6% · 342
- Black or African American22.5% · 117
- Hispanic or Latino6.7% · 35
- Two or more races3.8% · 20
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.6% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Carle
Carle is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 606 total registrations, 462 (76.2%) were male and 144 (23.8%) were female.
Carle as a male name
- Ranked #5,733 in 1982
- 6 male births in 1982
- Peak: 1920 (20 births)
Carle as a female name
- Ranked #18,140 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 2005 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carle on both sides of the split. Of the 523 people counted with this name, 258 were male (49.3%) and 265 were female (50.7%).
Popularity
Carle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carle from the 1900s through to the 2000s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 106 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carle 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 Carle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carle
The name Carle has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically in Old Norse and Old English. It is derived from the word "karl," which meant "man" or "husband." The name likely emerged during the early medieval period, around the 5th to 10th centuries AD.
In Old Norse, the name was spelled "Karl" or "Karli," while in Old English, it took the form of "Carl" or "Ceorl." These variations reflect the linguistic differences between the two closely related Germanic languages. The name was widely used among the Norse and Anglo-Saxon populations of Northern Europe during this period.
One of the earliest recorded historical references to the name Carle can be found in the Old English epic poem "Beowulf," which dates back to around the 8th or 9th century AD. In this work, the character Unferth is referred to as "Unferth the Carle," suggesting that the name was already in use at that time.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Carle continued to be popular among Germanic populations. Notable historical figures who bore this name include Charlemagne (742-814 AD), the famous Frankish king and Holy Roman Emperor, whose name was derived from the Old French form "Charles," which itself originated from the Germanic "Karl."
Another notable bearer of the name Carle was Karl the Great (c. 800-876 AD), a Frankish nobleman and military leader who played a significant role in the Carolingian Empire. In the 12th century, Carle of Louvain (c. 1084-1127 AD) was a powerful nobleman and military commander who served under Godfrey of Bouillon during the First Crusade.
During the Renaissance period, the name Carle remained in use, particularly in German-speaking regions. One notable figure from this era was Carl von Linné (1707-1778), the Swedish botanist and zoologist better known as Carolus Linnaeus, who is celebrated for his contributions to the binomial nomenclature system of classification.
In the 19th century, the German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) was a prominent figure in the development of Romantic opera. His works, such as "Der Freischütz," helped shape the course of German music during this period.
People
Carle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carle 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
Carle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 310 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carle 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 1,105,659 US residents.
Is Carle a common name?
We classify Carle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 606 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carle most popular?
The single biggest year for Carle was 1920, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carle is about 58 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 521 people with the name Carle, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,995 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 Carle 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 Carle?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carle on both sides of the split. Of the 523 people counted with this name, 258 were male (49.3%) and 265 were female (50.7%). 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 Carle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carle is White at 65.6%. The next largest groups are Black (22.5%) and Hispanic (6.7%). 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 Carle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.6% (342 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 Carle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carle a male name?
Yes, 76.2% of people registered as Carle 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 Carle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carle 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 Carle 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 Americans are named Carle?
See how many people share the name Carle on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.