Karl

“Variant of Charles — Free man” — Germanic, via French origin

Boy's name · #1585 in the US (2025) · Timeless

Karl has appeared in US records since 1880 — best rank #135 (1960) · 100,836 babies named Karl all-time · 1 in 17,000 boys born in 2025.

Around the world: #2 in Denmark (2025).

Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 11 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.

Famous Karls

Karl Marx — German-born philosopher (1818-1883)
Karl Popper — Austrian-British philosopher of science and social and política e falsificationism and for criticism of Plato, Hegel and Marx as totalitarian opponents of open society (1902-1994)
Karl Jaspers — German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher (1883–1969)
Karl Ferdinand Braun — German inventor and physicist (1909 Nobel Prize)
Karl Adolph Gjellerup — Danish writer (1857–1919)

Among 19,996 notable people named Karl:

Military figures appear 2.82× more often than among typical names — e.g. Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, Austrian field marshal (1771–1820).

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