Carlyle
A masculine name of Scottish origin, possibly meaning "small, fortified dwelling place".
Name Census estimates that about 1,778 living Americans carry the first name Carlyle. It is a predominantly male name (94.7% of registrations). The average person named Carlyle today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carlyle births was 1918 (115 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carlyle. 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 Carlyle with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 192,775 Americans
Peak year
1918
115 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,683
Tracked since 1892
Census
Carlyle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,022 people with the first name Carlyle, which placed it at #7,518 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
#7,518
National first-name rank
People counted
2.0K
2,022 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carlyle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlyle is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (30.4%) 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 Carlyle 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 Carlyle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.0% · 1,172
- Black or African American30.4% · 614
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 73
- Two or more races3.1% · 63
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 61
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 39
Gender
Gender distribution for Carlyle
Carlyle leans heavily male at 94.7% of total registrations, but 215 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Carlyle as a male name
- Ranked #5,683 in 2024
- 16 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (115 births)
Carlyle as a female name
- Ranked #11,368 in 2023
- 8 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1997 (10 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carlyle leans strongly male. 1,741 people counted with this name were male (85.9%), compared with 285 female bearers (14.1%).
Popularity
Carlyle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carlyle from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 806 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
Carlyle 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 Carlyle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carlyles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 19 states and territories. New York, North Carolina, Illinois recorded the most babies named Carlyle, while West Virginia, New Jersey, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 47 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carlyle
The name Carlyle has its origins in the Norman French language and can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is a combination of two words – "carl" meaning a free man or peasant, and "l'isle" meaning an island or manor. Thus, the name Carlyle likely referred to a peasant or freeman living on an island or manor estate.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carlyle can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a comprehensive record of landholders in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. This suggests that the name was already in use among the Norman nobility who had settled in Britain after the Norman Conquest.
The name Carlyle gained popularity in Scotland during the Middle Ages, particularly in the regions of Dumfriesshire and Lanarkshire. It is believed that the name may have been introduced to Scotland by Norman settlers or through interactions with Norman nobles in England.
In the 16th century, the name Carlyle was associated with the Scottish Covenanter movement, a group of Presbyterians who opposed the religious reforms imposed by the Stuart monarchs. One notable figure from this period was Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), a renowned Scottish essayist, satirist, and historian. His writings, particularly "The French Revolution" and "On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History," had a significant impact on Victorian literature and philosophy.
Another famous bearer of the name Carlyle was the American writer Thomas Carlyle Ford (1829-1901), who was a prominent advocate for the abolition of slavery and the temperance movement. His novel "The Web of Life" was widely read in the late 19th century.
In the 20th century, Carlyle Marney (1916-1965) was an influential Baptist minister and civil rights activist in the United States. He played a crucial role in desegregating churches and advocating for racial equality.
The name Carlyle has also been associated with notable figures in the arts and entertainment industry. For example, Carlyle Blackwell (1904-1988) was a Canadian-American actor and filmmaker who appeared in several silent films and early talkies.
Overall, the name Carlyle has a rich history that spans centuries and crosses cultural boundaries. Its origins can be traced back to the Norman conquest of England, and it has been borne by notable individuals in various fields, from literature and philosophy to civil rights and entertainment.
People
Carlyle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carlyle 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
Carlyle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carlyle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,778 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carlyle 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 192,775 US residents.
Is Carlyle a common name?
We classify Carlyle as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,051 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carlyle most popular?
The single biggest year for Carlyle was 1918, when 115 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carlyle is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carlyle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,022 people with the name Carlyle, or 0.67 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,518 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 Carlyle 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 Carlyle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carlyle leans strongly male. 1,741 people counted with this name were male (85.9%), compared with 285 female bearers (14.1%). 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 Carlyle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carlyle is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (30.4%) 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 Carlyle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carlyle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.0% (1,172 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 Carlyle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carlyle a male name?
Yes, 94.7% of people registered as Carlyle 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 Carlyle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carlyle 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 Carlyle 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 Carlyle as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.