Karol

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Karel in CZ Czechia, BR Brazil, NL Netherlands and 5 more, Карл in FI Finland, RU Russia, UA Ukraine and 1 more and Karl in SE Sweden, HR Croatia, AT Austria.

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◐

Karol is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name278K records spelled Karol16 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

  Also written Käröl, Kärol, K'Arol, Károl, Kârôl

• English given name136K records spelled Karol10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil

  Languages: English, Dutch, Norwegian

  Also written Kärol, K'Arol, Käröl, Káról, Karoľ

• German given name7.3K records spelled Karol13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Germany, United States, Austria, United Kingdom

  Languages: German, English

  Also written Karoel, Kärol, Käröl, Karöl, Kaerol

• a separate given name6.9K records spelled Karol5 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Karól, Kärol, Ḳarol, Károl

• Turkish given name3.9K records spelled Karol4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Türkiye, United States, Spain, United Kingdom

  Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani, Uzbek

  Also written Karõl

• English given name3.4K records spelled Karol175 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: English, German, Arabic

  Also written Carol, Carole, קרול, Carroll

74 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●

Karol 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.

• from the personal name Karol (see Charles).

  as a name·Dictionary of American Family Names

• In Polish, a male given name from Latin, equivalent to English Charles

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

• In Polish, Carl

  as a name·Polish Personal Names (CIA Foreign Names Studies, ch. 24)

• In English, Latin: protected with helmet

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In German, männl. Vom., polnische Form von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

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) — 113 years between 1911–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Karol Szymanowskib. 1882UAPolish composer (1882–1937)
• Karol Świerczewskib. 1897PLPolish general (1897-1947)
• John Paul IIb. 1920PLnot in their usual name264th pope of the Catholic Church (1978–2005)
• Karol Divínb. 1936HUCzechoslovak figure skater (1936–2022)
• Jerzy Buzekb. 1940PLnot in their usual namePrime Minister of Poland (r. 1997–2001); President of the European Parliament (r. 2009–2012)
• Karol Nawrockib. 1983PLPolish politician and historian, President of the Republic of Poland since 2025
• Tomasz Kędziorab. 1994PLnot in their usual namePolish association football player
• Karol Linettyb. 1995PLPolish footballer
• Karol Świderskib. 1997PLPolish association football player
• Karol Sevillab. 1999MXMexican actress, singer, songwriter and dancer

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 · 924 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Karol?

We estimate roughly 2.1 million people bear Karol (counting its spellings and scripts) across 17 countries in our records.

In which country does Karol have the most bearers?

We estimate about 1.2 million people bear Karol in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled karol.

Where is Karol most common?

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

How common is Karol compared with other names?

In the Czechia, Karol is the 21st most common given name of 28,899 given names recorded there.

Is Karol a male or female name?

Karol 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 Karol mean?

Recorded meaning: possibly a shortened form of some Ashkenazic name, as for example Karolinski, a habitational name for someone from the town of Karolin, in Poland and Belams.