Karel
A masculine Czech diminutive form of the name Charles meaning "Free man".
Name Census estimates that about 1,260 living Americans carry the first name Karel. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Karel today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karel births was 1939 (76 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karel. 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
- • Karel was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
People living today
1.3K
~ 1 in 272,027 Americans
Peak year
1939
76 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,392
Tracked since 1916
Gender
Gender distribution for Karel
Karel is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,809 total registrations, 601 (33.2%) were male and 1,208 (66.8%) were female.
Karel as a male name
- Ranked #9,392 in 2024
- 8 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (22 births)
Karel as a female name
- Ranked #11,938 in 2009
- 9 female births in 2009
- Peak: 1939 (69 births)
Popularity
Karel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karel from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 400 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
Karel 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 Karel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. California, Michigan, Illinois recorded the most babies named Karel, while Ohio, New York, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karel
Karel is a male given name of Germanic origin, derived from the Old Franconian "Karl" or "Karal", which means "free man" or "husband". The name gained widespread popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly after the reign of Charlemagne (742-814 AD), the famous Frankish king and Holy Roman Emperor, whose birth name was Carolus Magnus.
In the 9th century, the name Karel was introduced to the Slavic regions, where it underwent various linguistic adaptations, such as Karol in Polish and Czech, and Кирил (Kirill) in Russian. It is believed that the name Karel was brought to these regions by Christian missionaries, as it was a common practice to adopt Germanic names during the process of Christianization.
One of the earliest historical references to the name Karel can be found in the Old Czech Chronicle, which mentions a Bohemian nobleman named Karel (c. 1050-1092), who was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty and the first hereditary prince of Bohemia.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Karel, including Karel Hynek Mácha (1810-1836), a Czech romantic poet and novelist, considered one of the greatest figures in Czech literature. Another prominent bearer of the name was Karel Čapek (1890-1938), a Czech writer, playwright, and critic, who introduced the word "robot" to the English language in his science fiction play "R.U.R." (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti).
Karel Appel (1921-2006) was a Dutch painter and sculptor, widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and a founding member of the avant-garde CoBrA group. Karel Doorman (1889-1942) was a Dutch naval officer who fought heroically against the Japanese during the Battle of the Java Sea in World War II, sacrificing his life to protect a convoy of ships.
In the world of music, Karel Husa (1921-2016) was a renowned Czech-American composer and educator, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning composition "Music for Prague 1968". Karel Ančerl (1908-1973) was a Czech conductor and a leading figure in the Czech musical scene during the 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Karel
People
Karel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karel as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Karel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,260 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karel 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 272,027 US residents.
Is Karel a common name?
We classify Karel as "Rare". It ranks above 91.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,809 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karel most popular?
The single biggest year for Karel was 1939, when 76 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karel is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Karel a female name?
Yes, 66.8% of people registered as Karel 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.
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.