Carl: Name Meaning, Origin, Popularity, & Inspiration

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2. Baby Names

Carl

Carl is Old German, a variation of Charles, meaning "Free man."

+ 6% this year Masculine Rare Updated: August 7, 2024 Updated: August 7, 2024 Table of contents

Boy name origins & meanings

• Old German : Free man; a variation of Charles
• Old English : Carl's island

Boy name variations

Karl Karel Caroll Carroll Carlisle Carlyle Caryl Carel Carlos Carlito Carrlos Lyle Lisle Carley Carlile

How Popular Is The Name Carl

Family name origins & meanings

• Variant spelling of Dutch, German, and Scandinavian Karl.
• English : from the Anglo-Scandinavian personal name Karl(i), ultimately from Germanic karl ‘man’, ‘freeman’. See also Charles.
• English : status name for a bondman or villein, from the vocabulary word karl, carl, which had various different meanings at various times: originally ‘man’, then ‘ordinary man’, ‘peasant’, and in Middle English specialized in the senses ‘free peasant’, ‘bondman’, ‘villein’, and ‘rough, churlish individual’.

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