girl's name
Karla
KAR-luh
- Origin German
- Gender Girl
- Syllables 2
- Letters 5
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 95,678
the United States
#799
2025 births
Karla means free man, and the Germanic word named a free peasant — so a name that now reads as aristocratic began at the bottom of the free classes and rose to name emperors.
- Karla is a name of German origin.
- Peaked in 1964, when 2,066 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 9,751 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1915.
- 2 syllables, with the stress on syllable 1.
Karla over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1910s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1910s | 26 |
| 1920s | 65 |
| 1930s | 536 |
| 1940s | 3,102 |
| 1950s | 11,467 |
| 1960s | 17,756 |
| 1970s | 11,415 |
| 1980s | 9,449 |
| 1990s | 12,961 |
| 2000s | 16,184 |
| 2010s | 6,555 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,379 |
What Karla means
Karla means free man, or free woman in the feminine. The Germanic karl named a free peasant specifically, a man belonging to no lord, rather than freedom as an idea.
Where Karla comes from
Karla is the German and Scandinavian feminine of Karl, from the Germanic karl — a free man of the ordinary class, above a serf and below a noble. The word went both ways: upward into Charlemagne, whose name became the Slavic word for a king, and downward into the English churl, a boor. Karla belongs to a very large family of feminines — Carla, Carol, Caroline, Charlotte, Charlene, Carrie — all of them the same common noun by different national routes.
Karla in use
Karla peaked in the United States in 1964, when 2,066 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 739th in Ireland on 4 births, 799th in the United States on 340, 2637th in England and Wales on 10 and 2781st in France on 10, across 95,678 lifetime births in five of the seven markets we track. Carla, written up separately, holds substantially more volume.
How popular is Karla?
In 2025, Karla was given to 340 babies in the United States, ranking #799 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Karla is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Karla
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Karla also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Karla over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Karla in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Karla
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Karla — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Karla
What does the name Karla mean?
Free man — the Germanic karl, a free peasant rather than a nobleman.
Is it Karla or Carla?
Karla is the German and Scandinavian spelling; Carla is Italian and Spanish and holds more volume in our data.
How did karl come to name emperors?
Through Charlemagne, whose name became the word for a king in several Slavic languages.
How popular is Karla?
799th in the United States and 739th in Ireland.
Is Karla a girl's or a boy's name?
Karla is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
How many syllables are in Karla?
Karla has 2 syllables.
Is Karla a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Karla currently ranks #739 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.