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
Carl through the years
  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, with 372 babies in the first year on record.
  4. 1915
    Peak, #22
    6,613 babies named Carl, its best rank.
  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.