Carville
A masculine French name derived from the Norman "Carville", meaning "farmstead or village with quarries".
Name Census estimates that about 6 living Americans carry the first name Carville. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Carville today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Carville births was 1940 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Carville. 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
- • The typical person named Carville is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Carvilles were born before 1964.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Carville. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
6
~ 1 in 57,125,723 Americans
Peak year
1940
5 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1953 SSA rank
#3,891
Tracked since 1940
Popularity
Carville: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Carville from the 1940s through to the 1950s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 5 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Carville 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 Carville during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Carvilles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Carville
The given name Carville is a French name with origins that can be traced back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old French term "carvilla," which referred to a small village or hamlet. This term, in turn, has its roots in the Latin word "carrus," meaning "cart" or "wagon."
During the Middle Ages, many French place names were formed by combining descriptive terms with the suffix "-ville," which comes from the Latin "villa," meaning "village" or "estate." Thus, Carville likely originated as a surname describing someone who hailed from a small village or settlement associated with carts or wagons, perhaps due to its location along a trade route or near a market town.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Carville can be found in medieval French records and documents dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries. One notable historical figure bearing this name was Carville of Marseille, a 13th-century French troubadour and poet renowned for his lyrical compositions.
In the 14th century, a Carville de Villeneuve is mentioned in chronicles as a French nobleman who participated in the Hundred Years' War between France and England. Another early bearer of the name was Carville de Baux, a 15th-century French knight and military commander who fought in the Wars of the Roses in England.
Moving forward, the name Carville continued to be used in France, albeit relatively infrequently. In the 17th century, Carville Blondel was a French mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of celestial mechanics.
A more recent historical figure with the first name Carville was Carville Earle, an American historian and academic born in 1935, who specialized in the study of early modern European history and the Atlantic world.
While the name Carville is not particularly common today, it remains a part of the rich tapestry of French names with roots in the country's medieval past, reflecting the history and culture of small villages and settlements that once dotted the French countryside.
People
Carville + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Carville 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
Carville: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Carville?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Carville 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 57,125,723 US residents.
Is Carville a common name?
We classify Carville as "Very Rare". It ranks above 22.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 10 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Carville most popular?
The single biggest year for Carville was 1940, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Carville is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Carville in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Carville a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Carville 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 Carville still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Carville 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 Carville 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people share the name Carville?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.