Popularity of the name Carol, 1880–2025

Carol was at its most popular in 1945, when 30,389 girls were given the name: about 1 in 43 girls born in the U.S. that year, ranking #5. In 2025, 82 girls were named Carol, ranking #2,239. In all, Social Security counts 816,928 girls named Carol since 1880. Social Security’s records also list 8,656 boys named Carol.

Peak year

1945

Rank in 1945

#5

Babies in 1945

30,389

Rank in 2025

#2,239

Total since 1880

816,928

Where it stands now

In the past decade the name slipped from #1,770 in 2015 to #2,239 in 2025: 118 girls got it in 2015, and 82 in 2025.

Decade by decade

Its best decade was the 1940s, when 292,333 girls were named Carol, #5 for the decade. It ranked #624 in the 1880s and #2,245 in the 2020s so far.

Every 20 years in the records: 7 in 1880 (#679), 70 in 1900 (#397), 1,140 in 1920 (#182), 21,759 in 1940 (#6), 17,463 in 1960 (#23), 1,105 in 1980 (#232), 322 in 2000 (#718) and 100 in 2020 (#1,908).

Highs and lows

The most girls given the name in a single year was 34,284, in 1946. That is not its peak year: Social Security’s records hold more girls for 1946 than for 1945, so the name’s share of births was smaller. Its best rank in any year was #4, first reached in 1941.

Every year

The table lists every year from 1880 to 2025 in which Social Security recorded at least 5 girls named Carol, with the name’s rank that year.

How these numbers are counted

Social Security publishes, for every year since 1880, how many babies of each sex were given each name, counting any name given to at least 5. A name’s rank is its place that year among names for the same sex, by number of babies. Names with the same count share a rank here, while Social Security’s own lists break ties alphabetically, so a rank can differ from theirs by a place or two. A name’s share is the number of babies given it divided by all babies of that sex in the data that year, and its peak is the year that share was highest. Shares rather than counts set the peak, because far more babies were born in some years than others: counting babies alone would pull nearly every name’s peak toward the 1946–1964 baby boom.

Source: the U.S. Social Security Administration’s national baby name data, from Social Security card applications for babies born in the U.S. A name is left out of a year when fewer than 5 babies of one sex got it, and counts before about 1937 are incomplete, because many people born then never applied for a card. See how Baby Boom builds its data. Figures may contain errors.