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Carles

Boys' name

Possibly to become old, to grow, through *karlaz

Carles has been given to 686 babies in the U.S. since 1912. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1928, with 20 recorded.

Babies named Carles, 2021

1 in 565,000

Carles over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
0510152018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Carles: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly to become old, to grow, through *karlaz

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Carles means

Carles belongs to the name family reached through Carles → *karlaz. Its meaning is “to become old, to grow”.

Origin, language, and formation

Carles is used in Catalan.

Carles comes through Latin Carolus, Old High German Karl and Proto-Germanic *karlaz.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Charles and *karlaz.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Catalan, Carles is pronounced [ˈkar.ləs].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 681 boys were recorded with the name Carles between 1912 and 2021. Its highest annual count was 20 in 1928; its best national rank was #1,716 in 1928.

In the United States, 5 girls were recorded with the name Carles between 1964 and 1964. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1964; its best national rank was #6,879 in 1964.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Carles?

Carles had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2021, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2021
1 in 565,000
6 of 3,389,958 births
Among boys only
1 in 292,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2021
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
391,624 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Carles sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2021 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 391,624 children born in 2021 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Carles. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Carless were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Carles was born before 1947 — so the typical Carles is around 78 today.

Median birth year
1947
About 78 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
15.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
9.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
314
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 15.7% of all recorded uses (107).

Is Carles rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1928 (20)
Years since peak
97
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,716
1928

Spellings of Carles

Carles is not the most common spelling — Charles is, with 61.0% against Carles's 0.02%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Carles is used

Across 1910–2025, Carles was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 290,111 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in 100,000
  2. 2Tennessee1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Carles has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Carles around the world

Where Carles ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • France
    1937–2020
    #4,741
    in 2020

Popularity data from Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Carles by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,716
1928
Peak year
1928
20 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2021
All-time count
681
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#6,879
1964
Peak year
1964
5 that year
First recorded
1964
Last recorded
1964
All-time count
5
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Carles

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CardenCarderCarmelCarlsonCarrickCarsynCaronStylesCarvinCarlinCarollCareemCarlitoCarlonCarlusCarvelCarverCarneyStilesWellesCarlitosCartezCarmanCarley

Sibling names for Carles

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Carles

Top names of 1928, Carles's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1928Boys' names starting with CCatalan Boy NamesCatalan NamesCharles Variations & Nicknames