Carolina
A feminine given name with German origins meaning "free woman".
Name Census estimates that about 41,159 living Americans carry the first name Carolina. It sits at #428 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Carolina today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carolina births was 2004 (1,270 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carolina. 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 Carolina with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Carolina is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 137 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
41K
~ 1 in 8,328 Americans
Peak year
2004
1,270 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
1996 SSA rank
#428
Tracked since 1880
Census
Carolina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 69,300 people with the first name Carolina, which placed it at #735 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
#735
National first-name rank
People counted
69K
69,300 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
22.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
83.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carolina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carolina is Hispanic at 83.1%. The next largest groups are White (12.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.1%). 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 Carolina 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 Carolina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino83.1% · 57,599
- White12.0% · 8,287
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 2,168
- Black or African American1.0% · 659
- Two or more races0.7% · 461
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 126
Gender
Gender distribution for Carolina
Out of the 47,333 babies given the name Carolina since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Carolina as a male name
- Ranked #9,207 in 1996
- 5 male births in 1996
- Peak: 1989 (16 births)
Carolina as a female name
- Ranked #428 in 2024
- 716 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2004 (1,270 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carolina appears almost entirely female. Of the 69,296 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Carolina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carolina from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 11,073 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Carolina remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carolina 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 Carolina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carolinas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 43 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Carolina, while West Virginia, Delaware, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 981 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carolina
The name Carolina has its origins in the Latin language and likely emerged during the medieval period. It is derived from the masculine given name Carolus, which itself comes from the Germanic name Karl, meaning "free man" or "husband." The feminine form Carolina essentially means "the female Caroline."
Carolina gained popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in regions where Latin and its Romance language derivatives were spoken. Some of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in documents from Italy, France, and Spain from the 11th and 12th centuries.
One notable early bearer of the name was Carolina Beatrix Ventur, an Italian noblewoman who lived in the 13th century. She was known for her patronage of the arts and her support of various charitable causes.
In the 16th century, Carolina Michaelis de Vasconcelos, a Portuguese philologist and academic, made significant contributions to the study of Romance languages and Portuguese literature. She lived from 1851 to 1925.
The name also has a connection to the Carolingian dynasty, which ruled over much of Western Europe from the 8th to the 10th centuries. The dynasty was founded by Charlemagne, whose name in Latin was Carolus Magnus.
Carolina Coronado Romero de Quintana was a Spanish Romantic poet and writer who lived from 1820 to 1911. She was known for her lyrical poetry and her advocacy for women's rights.
Another notable figure was Carolina Müller-Beeck, a German painter and illustrator who lived from 1825 to 1904. She was recognized for her skilled portraiture and her illustrations of children's books.
In the realm of religious history, there is a record of a Saint Carolina who lived in the 3rd century and was martyred during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire. However, details about her life are scarce.
As the name spread across Europe and eventually to the Americas, it took on various spellings and forms, such as Carola, Carolyn, and Karolina, among others. However, Carolina remained a popular and enduring variation of the name.
People
Carolina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carolina 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
Carolina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carolina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 41,159 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carolina 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 8,328 US residents.
Is Carolina a common name?
We classify Carolina as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 47,333 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carolina most popular?
The single biggest year for Carolina was 2004, when 1,270 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carolina is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carolina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 69,300 people with the name Carolina, or 22.94 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #735 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 Carolina 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 Carolina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carolina appears almost entirely female. Of the 69,296 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Carolina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carolina is Hispanic at 83.1%. The next largest groups are White (12.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (3.1%). 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 Carolina most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Carolina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.1% (57,599 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 Carolina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carolina a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Carolina 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 Carolina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carolina 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 Carolina 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 Carolina?
You can see how many people share the name Carolina on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.