Karla

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled קרלה in IL Israel, NO Norway.

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 12 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◐

Karla is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• English given name1.0M records spelled Karla32 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela

  Languages: English, German, Danish

  Also written Kärlä, Ķarla, Kârlâ, Karlà, Kārlä

• Czech given name119K records spelled Karla37 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Czechia, Croatia, United States, Poland

  Languages: Czech, Croatian, Polish

  Also written Carla, Карла, Karľa, Ćârlâ, Cárlá

• a separate given name82K records spelled Karla2 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Karľa

• Lao given name9.2K records spelled Karla10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, United States, Thailand, Philippines

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written คาร์ลา, คาร์ล่า, Kärlä, Kárlá, Kärla

• Finnish given name7.6K records spelled Karla10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Finland, United States, Slovenia, Hungary

  Languages: Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian

  Also written Kärlä, Kärla, Kârlä, Kärlã, Kârlâ

73 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●

Karla 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, wahrscheinlich zu Karl; etymologische Zugehörigkeit nicht gesichert; 198 Belege.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen

• In German, ) Carla: weibl. Vom., weibliche

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In non, accusative/genitive plural of karl

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

• In Latvian, upe Krievijā, Čuvašijas Republikā un Tatarstānas Republikā, Svijagas kreisā krasta pieteka

  as a word·Tēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

• In Latvian, Sievietes vārds

  as a word·Tēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)

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) — 108 years between 1915–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Karla Erbováb. 1933CZCzech poet and writer (1933–2024)
• Karla Homolkab. 1970CACanadian convicted killer (manslaughter) and ex-wife of Paul Bernardo
• Karla Sofía Gascónb. 1972ESSpanish actress
• Karla Martínezb. 1976MXMexican television presenter
• Karla Monroigb. 1979USPuerto Rican actress
• Karla Mosleyb. 1981USAmerican actress and singer (born 1981)
• Karla Souzab. 1985MXMexican actress (born 1985)
• Karla Cromeb. 1988GBBritish actress
• Karla Kushb. 1991USAmerican pornographic actress
• Camila Cabellob. 1997CUnot in their usual nameCuban-Mexican-American singer

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 · 1,280 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Karla?

We estimate roughly 260 thousand people bear Karla (counting its spellings and scripts) across 13 countries in our records.

In which country does Karla have the most bearers?

Karla is most frequently recorded in Mexico, where it is most often spelled karla.

How common is Karla compared with other names?

In Mexico, Karla is the 104th most common given name of 191,605 given names recorded there.

Is Karla a male or female name?

Karla is a female 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 Karla mean?

Recorded meaning: A female given name from the Germanic languages, masculine equivalent Karl.