Carol
Carol is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 66 births. Its best rank was 4th, in 1941.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 660.00% of girls
- Peak year
- 194634,283 births
- Best rank
- #4in 1941
- Since 1880
- 825,494people given the name
The story in the numbers
816,838 girls have been named Carol in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1946, with 34,283 births — 2.2% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 66 births in 2024, against 34,283 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1948, and the 1940s alone account for 36%. It has spent 126 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 44 of them in the top 100 and 15 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 8,656 boys have also been given it, 1.0% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Carol | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 120 | |
| 1890s | 394 | |
| 1900s | 964 | |
| 1910s | 5,585 | |
| 1920s | 22,978 | |
| 1930s | 117,729 | |
| 1940s | 292,330 | |
| 1950s | 222,654 | |
| 1960s | 112,332 | |
| 1970s | 23,476 | |
| 1980s | 8,809 | |
| 1990s | 4,952 | |
| 2000s | 2,727 | |
| 2010s | 1,379 | |
| 2020s | 409 |
In 1946, its biggest year
Carol was the 5th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1946 were Mary, Linda, Patricia, Barbara and Carol. See all of 1946.
Names that rose and fell with Carol
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Kayepeak 1947
- Carolynpeak 1947
- Dianpeak 1946
- Sherrillpeak 1947
- Georgiannpeak 1948
- Georgiannepeak 1943
- Kaypeak 1942
- Glyndapeak 1947
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.