Caryll
An English feminine name of Old French origins meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 13 living Americans carry the first name Caryll. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Caryll today is around 86 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Caryll births was 1928 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Caryll. 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 Caryll is about 86 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Carylls were born before 1950.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Caryll. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
13
~ 1 in 26,365,718 Americans
Peak year
1928
8 babies that year
Average age
86
years old
1946 SSA rank
#5,050
Tracked since 1928
Census
Caryll in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 113 people with the first name Caryll, which placed it at #51,508 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
#51,508
National first-name rank
People counted
113
113 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Caryll
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caryll is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.0%). 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 Caryll 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 Caryll at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.9% · 88
- Black or African American8.0% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.0% · 9
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 4
- Two or more races2.7% · 3
Popularity
Caryll: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Caryll from the 1920s through to the 1940s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 22 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1930s peak, Caryll remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Caryll 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 Caryll during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Caryll
The name Caryll has its origins in the Anglo-Norman French language. It emerged in the medieval period, derived from the Old French word "charrier" which meant "to transport by cart or wagon." This connection suggests that the name may have initially referred to someone who worked as a carter or driver of carts.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Caryll was Sir John Caryll, an English landowner and Member of Parliament who lived from around 1625 to 1711. He was a prominent Catholic loyalist during the English Civil War and hosted King Charles II at his estate during the monarch's exile.
Another notable figure with the name Caryll was John Caryll, a 17th-century English poet and dramatist. He was born in 1625 and is best known for his play "Sir Salomon, or The Cautious Coxcomb," which was performed in London in 1671.
In the 18th century, there was Lady Mary Caryll, an English aristocrat and courtier who served as a Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline, the wife of King George II. Lady Mary Caryll lived from around 1700 to 1768.
Moving into the 19th century, Caryll Worsley was a British army officer and colonial administrator who served as the Governor of Trinidad from 1854 to 1859. He was born in 1797 and died in 1877.
Another notable bearer of the name Caryll was Caryll Houselander, an English Catholic mystic and writer who lived from 1901 to 1954. She is best known for her spiritual works, including "The Reed of God" and "The Passion of the Infant Christ."
While the name Caryll has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, it has persisted as a unique and distinctive given name with roots in the medieval French language and associations with notable figures from various fields, including politics, literature, and religion.
People
Caryll + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Caryll 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
Caryll: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Caryll?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Caryll 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 26,365,718 US residents.
Is Caryll a common name?
We classify Caryll as "Very Rare". It ranks above 33.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 47 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Caryll most popular?
The single biggest year for Caryll was 1928, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Caryll is about 86 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Caryll in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 113 people with the name Caryll, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,508 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 Caryll 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 Caryll?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Caryll leans strongly female. 102 people counted with this name were female (91.1%), compared with 10 male bearers (8.9%). 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 Caryll?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Caryll is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Black (8.0%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.0%). 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 Caryll most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Caryll in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.9% (88 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 Caryll in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Caryll a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Caryll 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 Caryll still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Caryll 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 Caryll 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 Caryll?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Caryll at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.