Carl

Where Carl comes from

From Germanic, cognate with English Charles. * From German and other north European Carl and Karl. * From Latin Carolus.
— Wiktionary's entry for Carl
  • Germanic
  • 1 syllable
Along the way
  1. 1707
    Carl Linnaeus born
    Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist
  2. 1777
    Carl Friedrich Gauss born
    German mathematician and physicist
  3. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #42 among boys — 372 babies in the first year on record.
  4. 1915
    Peak, #22
    6,613 babies named Carl — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1973
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #90.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages, equivalent to English Charles.
Namesakes
  • Carl Linnaeus · Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, 1707–1778
  • Carl Friedrich Gauss · German mathematician and physicist, 1777–1855
  • Carl Jung · Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist, 1875–1961
  • Carl Sagan · American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author, 1934–1996
  • Carl von Clausewitz · German-Prussian general and military theorist, 1780–1831

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.