Carrol
Of French origin, a surname used as a masculine given name.
Name Census estimates that about 3,556 living Americans carry the first name Carrol. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 58.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Carrol today is around 75 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carrol births was 1943 (352 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carrol. 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
- • Carrol started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Carrol sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • The typical person named Carrol is about 75 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Carrols were born before 1961.
People living today
3.6K
~ 1 in 96,388 Americans
Peak year
1943
352 babies that year
Average age
75
years old
1989 SSA rank
#5,708
Tracked since 1890
Census
Carrol in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,978 people with the first name Carrol, which placed it at #3,925 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
#3,925
National first-name rank
People counted
5.0K
4,978 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Carrol
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carrol is White at 80.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.8%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Carrol 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 Carrol at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.4% · 4,001
- Black or African American12.8% · 637
- Two or more races3.0% · 151
- Hispanic or Latino2.1% · 106
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 54
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 29
Gender
Gender distribution for Carrol
Carrol is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 10,319 total registrations, 6,067 (58.8%) were male and 4,252 (41.2%) were female.
Carrol as a male name
- Ranked #5,708 in 1989
- 8 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1930 (191 births)
Carrol as a female name
- Ranked #15,877 in 2002
- 5 female births in 2002
- Peak: 1943 (200 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carrol on both sides of the split. Of the 4,984 people counted with this name, 1,753 were male (35.2%) and 3,231 were female (64.8%).
Popularity
Carrol: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carrol from the 1890s through to the 2000s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 2,760 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carrol 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 Carrol during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carrols live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana recorded the most babies named Carrol, while South Dakota, Montana, Maine recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 144 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Carrol
The name Carrol is an English variant of the French name Charles, which is derived from the Germanic name Karl. The name Karl originates from the Old High German word "karal," meaning "man" or "male." It was a popular name among the Frankish nobility in the early Middle Ages.
The name Charles gained widespread popularity in Europe due to the fame of Charlemagne, the King of the Franks and the first Holy Roman Emperor, who reigned from 768 to 814 CE. Charlemagne's name was a Frankish rendition of the Latin name "Carolus," which itself was derived from the Germanic "Karl."
The variant spelling "Carrol" emerged in England during the late Middle Ages, possibly as a result of regional dialects or scribal errors. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Carrol is in the Middle English romance poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," written around 1400 CE.
Among the notable historical figures named Carrol are:
1. Carrol Quigley (1910-1977), an American historian and theorist best known for his book "Tragedy and Hope," which explored the role of secret societies in shaping world events.
2. Carrol Shelby (1923-2012), an American automotive designer and racing driver who founded the Shelby American company and created the iconic Shelby Cobra sports car.
3. Carrol O'Connor (1924-2001), an American actor best known for his role as Archie Bunker in the television series "All in the Family," for which he won four Emmy Awards.
4. Carrol Borland (1913-1994), an American actress and dancer who appeared in several horror films, including "Mark of the Vampire" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."
5. Carrol Vertrees (1888-1976), an American composer and pianist who wrote numerous ragtime compositions and was a member of the Tin Pan Alley group of songwriters.
While the name Carrol has been relatively uncommon throughout history, it has maintained a presence, particularly in English-speaking countries, as a variant spelling of the more common name Charles.
People
Carrol + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carrol 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
Carrol: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carrol?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,556 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carrol 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 96,388 US residents.
Is Carrol a common name?
We classify Carrol as "Rare". It ranks above 95.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10,319 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carrol most popular?
The single biggest year for Carrol was 1943, when 352 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carrol is about 75 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Carrol in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,978 people with the name Carrol, or 1.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,925 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 Carrol 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 Carrol?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Carrol on both sides of the split. Of the 4,984 people counted with this name, 1,753 were male (35.2%) and 3,231 were female (64.8%). 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 Carrol?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Carrol is White at 80.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.8%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Carrol most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Carrol in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.4% (4,001 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 Carrol in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carrol a male name?
Yes, 58.8% of people registered as Carrol 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 Carrol still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carrol 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 Carrol 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 are named Carrol?
Want to know how many people share the name Carrol? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.