Carlton

Spellings & scripts●

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other recorded senses●

Carlton is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from Carlton (Beds, C, Du, L, Lei, Nt, Nth, Sf, ERY, NRY, WRY), or Carleton (Cu, La, Nf, WRY); first attested Elsi de Carleton 1031 FeuDu

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In English, Any of several place names in England:

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• From Cohn as Cohen.

  as a name·The Origin of Jewish Family Names: Morphology and History

• English: transferred use of the surname, which is of the same origin as CHARLTON , being derived from any of various places (in Beds., Cambs., Co. Durham, Leics., Lincs., Northants, Notts., Suffolk, and Yorks.) named with the Old English elements ceorl (free) man + t n settlement, i.e. ‘settlement of the free peasants’. The initial /k/ sound is the result of Anglo-Scandinavian influence.

  as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Tiny Bradshawb. 1907USnot in their usual nameAmerican jazz and rhythm and blues bandleader, singer, composer, pianist, and drummer (1907–1958)
• Carl Douglasb. 1942JMnot in their usual nameJamaican singer
• Carl Andersonb. 1945USnot in their usual nameAmerican singer, film and theatre actor (1945–2004)
• Nikki Sixxb. 1958USnot in their usual nameAmerican musician (born 1958)
• Carlton Cuseb. 1959MXAmerican television producer and screenwriter (born 1959)
• David Danielsb. 1966USnot in their usual nameAmerican opera singer
• Greg Anthonyb. 1967USnot in their usual nameAmerican basketball player (born 1967)
• Carlton Chambersb. 1975CACanadian sprinter
• Benedict Cumberbatchb. 1976GBnot in their usual nameEnglish actor (born 1976)
• Carlton Coleb. 1983GBEnglish footballer (born 1983)

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 318 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Carlton?

We estimate roughly 28 thousand people bear Carlton (counting its spellings and scripts) across 7 countries in our records.

In which country does Carlton have the most bearers?

We estimate about 28 thousand people bear Carlton in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled carlton.

Where is Carlton most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Carlton is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 1.8 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Carlton compared with other names?

In the United States, Carlton is the 863rd most common given name of 3,122,706 given names recorded there.

Is Carlton a male or female name?

Carlton is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Carlton mean?

Recorded meaning: ‘person from Carlton or Carleton’, the name of various places in northern and eastern England, ‘farmstead of the freemen’