Carlette
A feminine diminutive of the name Carl, deriving from Germanic roots meaning "man".
Name Census estimates that about 829 living Americans carry the first name Carlette. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Carlette today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carlette births was 1966 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carlette. 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.
People living today
829
~ 1 in 413,455 Americans
Peak year
1966
45 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
1998 SSA rank
#14,523
Tracked since 1942
Census
Carlette in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 925 people with the first name Carlette, which placed it at #13,154 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
#13,154
National first-name rank
People counted
925
925 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carlette
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlette is Black at 68.2%. The next largest groups are White (23.2%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Carlette 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 Carlette at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.2% · 631
- White23.2% · 215
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 33
- Two or more races2.9% · 27
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 9
Popularity
Carlette: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carlette from the 1940s through to the 1990s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 354 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
Carlette 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 Carlette during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carlettes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 11 states and territories. Louisiana, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Carlette, while Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carlette
Carlette is a feminine given name derived from the French name Carlota, which is a form of the Germanic name Karlotta. The name traces its roots back to the medieval German name Karlot or Karlot, which was a pet form of the name Karl, meaning "free man" or "manly."
The name Karlot first appeared in written records during the 9th century, and it was used predominantly in Germanic regions such as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The French form Carlota emerged in the 12th century and became popular among the nobility and aristocracy of France.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carlette can be found in the 14th-century French text "Chronique de Froissart," where it is mentioned as the name of a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of France. However, the name remained relatively uncommon throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period.
The first notable bearer of the name Carlette was Carlette de Bretagne (1370-1420), a French noblewoman who served as the dame d'honneur (lady-in-waiting) to the Duchess of Brittany. Another early bearer of the name was Carlette de Gand (1415-1478), a Flemish courtier who was a prominent figure in the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the name gained some popularity among the French aristocracy, although it remained relatively rare. One notable bearer from this period was Carlette de Montlor (1535-1605), a French noblewoman who served as a lady-in-waiting to Catherine de' Medici, the Queen of France.
In the 18th century, the name Carlette was occasionally used in literary works, such as the novel "Les Illustres Françaises" by Robert Challe, published in 1713, where it is given to a fictional character. However, it remained an uncommon name throughout this period.
One of the most famous bearers of the name Carlette in modern times was Carlette Browning (1905-1992), an American actress and singer who appeared in several Broadway musicals and Hollywood films during the 1930s and 1940s.
People
Carlette + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carlette 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
Carlette: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carlette?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 829 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carlette 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 413,455 US residents.
Is Carlette a common name?
We classify Carlette as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,019 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carlette most popular?
The single biggest year for Carlette was 1966, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carlette is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carlette in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 925 people with the name Carlette, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,154 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 Carlette 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 Carlette?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carlette leans strongly female. 910 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 14 male bearers (1.5%). 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 Carlette?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlette is Black at 68.2%. The next largest groups are White (23.2%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Carlette most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Carlette in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.2% (631 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 Carlette in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carlette a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carlette 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 Carlette still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carlette 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 Carlette 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 share the name Carlette?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.