Karlo
Karlo was given to 30 boys in 2025, #3,702 among boys’ names; 1,061 Americans have been recorded with it since 1959 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,030 Americans named Karlo and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 10 and 32.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karlo by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karlo mean?
Wiktionary, Esperanto section
Karlo is “a male given name from Proto-Germanic, equivalent to English Charles or Carl” Its etymology gives the sense “free man” (*karlaz).
From Proto-Germanic *karlaz (“free man”).
/ˈkarlo/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Esperanto section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karlo?
#3,702 among boys’ names, 2025
Karlo rose from #5,870 in 2015 to #3,702 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 7.8 to 17.6 per million.
39 babies in 2010, the peak
Karlo peaked in 2010, when 39 boys were given it, #2,984 among boys’ names. The 30 births of 2025 are 77% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 30 | #3,702 | 17.6 |
| 2024 | 34 | #3,424 | 19.7 |
| 2023 | 34 | #3,449 | 19.9 |
| 2022 | 31 | #3,656 | 17.8 |
| 2021 | 31 | #3,608 | 17.7 |
| 2020 | 18 | #5,137 | 10.4 |
| 2019 | 21 | #4,705 | 11.7 |
| 2018 | 21 | #4,664 | 11.6 |
| 2017 | 21 | #4,665 | 11.3 |
| 2016 | 32 | #3,478 | 16.9 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 15 | #5,870 | 7.8 |
| 2014 | 29 | #3,657 | 15.1 |
| 2013 | 18 | #5,069 | 9.5 |
| 2012 | 29 | #3,662 | 15.3 |
| 2011 | 29 | #3,652 | 15.3 |
| 2010 | 39 | #2,984 | 20.3 |
| 2009 | 33 | #3,370 | 16.6 |
| 2008 | 27 | #3,875 | 13.2 |
| 2007 | 27 | #3,840 | 13.0 |
| 2006 | 33 | #3,273 | 16.1 |
| 2005 | 31 | #3,279 | 15.5 |
| 2004 | 30 | #3,245 | 15.1 |
| 2003 | 32 | #3,020 | 16.2 |
| 2002 | 20 | #4,114 | 10.3 |
| 2001 | 19 | #4,208 | 9.8 |
| 2000 | 20 | #3,995 | 10.2 |
| 1999 | 17 | #4,236 | 8.9 |
| 1998 | 13 | #5,023 | 6.8 |
| 1997 | 14 | #4,567 | 7.4 |
| 1996 | 17 | #3,921 | 9.0 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,707 | 5.3 |
| 1994 | 15 | #4,190 | 7.8 |
| 1993 | 15 | #4,124 | 7.6 |
| 1992 | 22 | #3,059 | 11.0 |
| 1991 | 15 | #3,912 | 7.4 |
| 1990 | 10 | #5,187 | 4.9 |
| 1989 | 16 | #3,527 | 8.0 |
| 1988 | 9 | #4,999 | 4.7 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,559 | 2.7 |
| 1986 | 8 | #5,101 | 4.3 |
| 1985 | 18 | #2,773 | 9.7 |
| 1984 | 11 | #3,812 | 6.1 |
| 1983 | 12 | #3,528 | 6.7 |
| 1982 | 10 | #4,090 | 5.5 |
| 1981 | 12 | #3,512 | 6.7 |
| 1980 | 14 | #3,178 | 7.8 |
| 1979 | 14 | #3,085 | 8.1 |
| 1978 | 11 | #3,505 | 6.7 |
| 1977 | 7 | #4,865 | 4.3 |
| 1976 | 11 | #3,376 | 7.0 |
| 1975 | 10 | #3,546 | 6.4 |
| 1974 | 13 | #2,874 | 8.3 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,804 | 3.8 |
| 1970 | 10 | #3,171 | 5.4 |
| 1964 | 6 | #3,829 | 3.0 |
| 1959 | 6 | #3,805 | 2.8 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Karlo a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karlo has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 56 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karlo: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karlo, and how old are they?
1,030 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 1,061 Americans ever recorded as Karlo. The median Karlo alive today is 20 years old; half are between 10 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 1,257 people named Karlo (47 women and girls, 1,210 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 866 born in the U.S. The Census count is 45% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 87 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 195 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 407 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 333 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Karlo born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #2,429 | 1.4× |
| California | 5 | #2,637 | 1.8× |
Where Karlo is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karlo is most over-represented in California: since 1959 it was given 1.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Karlo with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 17,667 babies since 1880, Karlo is the second most given (6.0% of them). In 2025 it was given to 30 of their 306 babies (9.8%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Karlo
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Karlo and names like it
- Compare Karlo and CarloBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKarlo peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karlo since 1910.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Karlo.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Karlo alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.