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Carola

#11,129 in 2025Girls' name

Free man, through Karl

Carola has been given to 1,170 babies in the U.S. since 1894. In 2025 it ranked #11,129 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1961, with 29 recorded.

Babies named Carola, 2025

1 in 414,000

Carola over time, 1880–2025

Girls
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Carola: meaning, origin, and history

Free man, through Karl

Latin

What Carola means

Carola belongs to the name family reached through Carola → Karl. Its meaning is “free man”.

Origin, language, and formation

Carola is used in German, Italian and Swedish. Its origins include Latin.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Carolus, Karl and Carol.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,170 girls were recorded with the name Carola between 1894 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 29 in 1961; its best national rank was #1,073 in 1894.

Over 10 years its rank rose, from #16,965 in 2015 to #11,129 in 2025.

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 Carola?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 414,000
8 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 201,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#11,129
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
287,238 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Carola sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 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 287,238 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Carola. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Carolas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Carola was born before 1951 — so the typical Carola is around 74 today.

Median birth year
1951
About 74 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
14.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
10.9%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
619
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 14.4% of all recorded uses (169).

Is Carola 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
−695
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
+5,836
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.60×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
27.6%
Peak was 1961 (29)
Years since peak
64
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
15.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,073
1894

Spellings of Carola

Carola is not the most common spelling — Carol is, with 35.9% against Carola's 0.05%.

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 Carola is used

Across 1910–2025, Carola was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 948,839 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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. Carola has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Carola around the world

Where Carola 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.

  • England & Wales
    1996–1996
    #3,795
    in 1996
  • France
    1910–2022
    #7,546
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1952–1996
    #712
    in 1996

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Carola by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#11,129
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#1,073
1894
Peak year
1961
29 that year
First recorded
1894
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,170
Count in 2025
8

Names similar to Carola

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

CarsenCarmynCarminCarlinCarlinaCaralynCarisCarminaCarlitaCarlenaCarahCaraleeCarlynnCaridadCarlynCaritaCarsynCarlyeCarollCarysCarlotaCarmonCaralineCarrigan

Sibling names for Carola

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 Carola

Top names of 1961, Carola's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1894Girls' names starting with CUncommon German Girl Names