Entry № 1782 · English origin

Carol Carol — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ KAIR-ol /
Gender
Girl
Origin
English
Meaning
"Joyful song (peaked #4 in 1942; Carol Burnett, Carol Channing)"
Syllables
2
First recorded
Medieval (English)

A name that means "joyful song (peaked #4 in 1942; carol burnett, carol channing)".

Carol is a feminine of Charles (from the Old Germanic karl, "free man") — also from the Middle English carole (joyful song, dance).

Subject of Todd Haynes's Carol (2015 film).

Joyful song (peaked #4 in 1942; Carol Burnett, Carol Channing) — a English name.

The name in its native script.

Carol
Transliteration
Carol
Pronunciation
/ ˈkær.əl /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Carol stands.

Carol does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Carols before her.

Real people
Carol Burnett
American comedian.
born 1933
Carol Channing
American Broadway actress.
1921 – 2019
Carole King
American singer-songwriter.
born 1942
In fiction
Carol
Patricia Highsmith's Carol.
1952

Names connected to Carol.

The number behind Carol.

4

The Builder

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Carol reduce to 4, The Builder. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.