Carols
A feminine name derived from the Latin name Carolus, meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 123 living Americans carry the first name Carols. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Carols today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carols births was 1987 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carols. 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
123
~ 1 in 2,786,621 Americans
Peak year
1987
15 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
1993 SSA rank
#6,293
Tracked since 1967
Census
Carols in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 234 people with the first name Carols, which placed it at #34,758 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
#34,758
National first-name rank
People counted
234
234 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
82.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carols
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carols is Hispanic at 82.5%. The next largest groups are White (12.8%) and Black (3.8%). 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 Carols 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 Carols at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino82.5% · 193
- White12.8% · 30
- Black or African American3.8% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1
- Two or more races0.4% · 1
Popularity
Carols: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carols from the 1960s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 77 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Carols remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carols 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 Carols during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carols' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Carols
The given name Carols has its roots in the Latin word "carolus", which means "free man" or "man". The name was popular during the Middle Ages and was used by several European royal families, particularly in France and Germany.
The earliest recorded use of the name Carols dates back to the 8th century, when it was borne by Charlemagne, the famous King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great, was born in 742 and died in 814. He played a significant role in the spread of Christianity and the revival of education and culture in Europe.
Another notable bearer of the name Carols was Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled from 1519 to 1556. He was one of the most powerful monarchs in European history and oversaw the vast Spanish Empire, which included territories in Europe, the Americas, and parts of Africa and Asia.
In the 16th century, Carols Martel, the Frankish military leader and the Duke of Austrasia, was a prominent figure. He is best known for his victory against the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of Tours in 732, which halted the Muslim invasion of Western Europe.
During the English Renaissance, the name Carols was popularized by the playwright and poet William Shakespeare, who used it for several characters in his works, including the ill-fated Prince of Wales in the play "Henry IV, Part 1".
Another famous bearer of the name Carols was Charles Darwin, the English naturalist and geologist who is best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin was born in 1809 and died in 1882, leaving a lasting impact on the field of biology and the understanding of the natural world.
People
Carols + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carols 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
Carols: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carols?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 123 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carols 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 2,786,621 US residents.
Is Carols a common name?
We classify Carols as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 129 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carols most popular?
The single biggest year for Carols was 1987, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carols is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carols in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 234 people with the name Carols, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,758 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 Carols 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 Carols?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Carols leans strongly male. 222 people counted with this name were male (92.1%), compared with 19 female bearers (7.9%). 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 Carols?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carols is Hispanic at 82.5%. The next largest groups are White (12.8%) and Black (3.8%). 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 Carols most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Carols in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.5% (193 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 Carols in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carols a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carols 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 Carols still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carols 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 Carols 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 the name Carols?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.