Karl
Boy name · 282 babies recorded · 1974–2025
Karl: 282 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to boys, peaking at 16 births in 1988.
Karl is a German and Scandinavian short form of Charles, ultimately deriving from the Old High German *karal*, meaning 'free man'—a word that also gave us the English 'churl', which originally meant a freeman of the lowest rank. The name is indelibly linked to Karl Marx, the 19th-century philosopher and economist whose writings on class struggle shaped modern political thought, and to the Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel's friend, the industrialist Karl Wilhelm Scheele. Beyond people, the name lends itself to places like Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, whose name literally means 'Charles's Spa'. While Karl remains a classic in German-speaking countries, in Scotland it is a less common but steady choice, and its variant, Carl, has seen greater usage across the English-speaking world.
Boy 31 of 52 years
- Peak year
- 198816 babies
- Latest (2009)
- #6263 babies
- Total births
- 282since 1974
- 5-year trend
- ▼ 41%vs prior 5y