Name Awesome

Carleton

Boys' name

Variant of Charlton

Carleton has been given to 4,839 babies in the U.S. since 1880. 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 1923, with 103 recorded.

Babies named Carleton, 2023

1 in 552,000

Carleton over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Carleton: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Charlton

surname transfer

What Carleton means

Carleton is a variant of Charlton.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Carleton is used in English.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈkɑɹl.tən/ and /ˈkɑːl.tən/ for Carleton.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Carleton → Charlton. The family’s meaning is “settlement of free men”, recorded in the naming reference for Charlton.

Origin, language, and formation

Carleton is used in English. Its origins include surname transfer.

Carleton is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Charlton.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Carleton is pronounced /ˈkɑɹ(ə)ltən/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 4,839 boys were recorded with the name Carleton between 1880 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 103 in 1923; its best national rank was #479 in 1891.

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 Carleton?

Carleton had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 552,000
6 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 285,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
382,940 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Carleton 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 2023 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 382,940 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Carleton. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Carletons were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Carleton was born before 1942 — so the typical Carleton is around 83 today.

Median birth year
1942
About 83 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
17.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
2.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,973
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 17.2% of all recorded uses (830).

Is Carleton 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 1923 (103)
Years since peak
102
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
33.6% average annual change
Best rank ever
#479
1891

Spellings of Carleton

Carleton is not the most common spelling — Carlton is, with 71.4% against Carleton's 7.1%.

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 Carleton is used

Across 1910–2025, Carleton was most concentrated in Maine — about 1 in 2,439 boys, against 1 in 59,329 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

041 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Maine1 in 2,439
  2. 2Massachusetts1 in 11,111
  3. 3New York1 in 33,333
  4. 4Connecticut1 in 50,000
  5. 5Michigan1 in 50,000
  6. 6Vermont1 in 50,000
  7. 7California1 in 100,000
  8. 8New Hampshire1 in 100,000

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. Carleton has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Carleton around the world

Where Carleton 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.

  • South Australia
    1967–1967
    #552
    in 1967

Popularity data from Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Notable people named Carleton

People whose public names include Carleton, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Carleton 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
#479
1891
Peak year
1923
103 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
4,839
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Carleton

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

CarringtonCarltonCarstonCarnellCarmelloCarlisleCarlyleCartierCardellCarstenHamiltonCharltonThurstonLangstonCarsenThorntonBrightonCarmeloCarmineLeightonCarverHamptonCarlitoBrixton

Names with a curve like Carleton

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Carleton, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ReynoldEldridgeAlvisHaywardLacyRowlandGilesAlfordDorseyLoranHaywoodGarnett

Sibling names for Carleton

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 Carleton

Top names of 1923, Carleton's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1891Boys' names starting with C