Karl

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Charles in US United States, GB United Kingdom, AU Australia and 12 more, Carl in DK Denmark, NZ New Zealand, IE Ireland and 1 more and Karel in CZ Czechia, NL Netherlands, BE Belgium.

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●

Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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

Other names spelled this way◐

Karl is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• French given name224K records spelled Karl10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, United States, Philippines, Brazil

  Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Kärl, Kårl, Kârl, ́karl

• Finnish given name111K records spelled Karl8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, United States

  Languages: Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian

  Also written Kärl, Kǎřl, Kārl, Kàrl

• a separate given name33K records spelled Karl4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Sweden, United Kingdom, Switzerland

  Also written Ḳarl, Kárl

• Czech given name26K records spelled Karl188 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Poland, United States, Slovakia

  Languages: Czech, Polish, Russian

  Also written Karel, Karol, Charles, Карл, Carl

• Indonesian given name7.2K records spelled Karl3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Philippines, Indonesia, United States, Malaysia

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Kárl

• Icelandic given name4.7K records spelled Karl2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Iceland, United States, Sweden, Norway

  Also written Kärl

• a separate given name3.7K records spelled Karl3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Norway, United Kingdom, Canada

  Also written Kårl, Kấrĺ

101 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Karl is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, from the Germanic name stem meaning 'man, husband, free man'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• Finnish; topographic and ornamental name from kari ‘small island’, ‘stony rapids’, ‘sandbar’, or ‘rocky place in a field’. This name is found throughout Finland.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• Germanic: ‘man’, an ancient royal and imperial name. See }\Charles in main dictionary. = 270

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• Hungarian; from a pet form of the personal name Kdroly, Hungarian form of Charles.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• German; from a Carinthian pet form of the personal name Zacharias.

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

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●

• Charles the Fatb. 839DEnot in their usual nameEmperor of the Carolingian Empire (839-888) (r. 881-887)
• Karl IV.b. 1316CZHoly Roman Emperor
• Karl VIb. 1685AT18th century Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor
• Friedrich Schlegelb. 1772DEnot in their usual nameGerman poet, critic and scholar, editor
• Karl Adolph Gjellerupb. 1857DKDanish writer (1857–1919)
• Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austriab. 1858ATnot in their usual nameAustrian archduke (1858-1889)
• Karl Rennerb. 1870ATfirst President of Austria (1870–1950)
• Karl Manne Georg Siegbahnb. 1886SESwedish physicist (1886-1978)
• Willy Brandb. 1913DEnot in their usual nameGerman politician (SPD), chancellor of West Germany (1969–1974) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• Karl Alexander Müllerb. 1927CHSwiss physicist (1927–2023)

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 · 1,281 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Karl?

We estimate roughly 2.0 million people bear Karl (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Karl have the most bearers?

Karl is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled charles.

Where is Karl most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Karl is densest in the Czechia — about 1 in 51 people — even though United Kingdom holds more of our records for it.

How common is Karl compared with other names?

In the United Kingdom, Karl is the 15th most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.

Is Karl a male or female name?

Karl 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 Karl mean?

Recorded meaning: from the Germanic personal name Karl/Carolus, from *karl- 'man, husband, free man'