Find out how popular the last name Carlson is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Carlson.

Carlson, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Carlson surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Carlson in America

Carlson is the 252nd most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Carlson surname appeared 120,552 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 41 people would have the surname Carlson.

We can also compare 2010 data for Carlson to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Carlson

Carlson is a Swedish surname that originated in the late 17th century. It is a patronymic name derived from the Swedish given name Carl, which is the Swedish form of Charles, and the suffix "-son" meaning "son of." The name literally means "son of Carl."

The name likely originated in the southern regions of Sweden, where the given name Carl was popular during the 17th and 18th centuries. It is possible that the earliest recorded instances of the name appeared in church records or census documents from that time period.

One of the earliest known individuals with the surname Carlson was Johan Carlson, a Swedish soldier who fought in the Great Northern War (1700-1721) against Russia. He was born in 1683 and died in 1742.

Another notable Carlson was Anders Carlson, a Swedish explorer and fur trader who traveled to North America in the late 18th century. He was born in 1757 and died in 1821.

In the 19th century, the name Carlson began to spread to other parts of the world as Swedish immigrants settled in various countries. One of the most famous Carlsons was Chester Carlson, the American inventor who patented the process of electrophotography, which became the basis for xerography and modern photocopying. He was born in 1906 and died in 1968.

Another well-known Carlson was Evan Carlson, an American jazz musician and composer who played with many famous big bands in the 1940s and 1950s. He was born in 1919 and died in 1990.

In the 20th century, the name Carlson became especially common in the United States due to the large number of Swedish immigrants who settled there. One notable American Carlson was Brianne Carlson, an Olympic swimmer who won a gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The name Carlson has also been found in various spellings over the years, such as Carlsson, Karlsson, and Karlsen, reflecting the different regional dialects and linguistic variations in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Carlson

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Carlson.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Carlson was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Carlson has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Carlson was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Carlson, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!