Caroline

What Caroline means

Meaning not yet sourced. Wiktionary has no word-by-word meaning for Caroline yet, and we don’t write our own.

Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #96 vs #1,271 in 2025 Worked out from the official US and England & Wales counts, not a meaning.

How popular is Caroline?

US: Falling: down from #62 in 2015. England & Wales: Falling: down from #674 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1881, when 316 girls got the name (#73 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 607 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 10,131 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in DC (8.92 per 1,000 girls), AL (5.62 per 1,000 girls), AR (4.53 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Caroline is #96 in the US and #1271 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Caroline were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

Other spellings parents chose in 2025

• Coraline414 US · 7 E&W
• Carolyn185 US
• Karoline119 US · 3 E&W
• Carolynn45 US
• Caraline15 US
• Karaline14 US
• Carolyne9 US
• Karolyne6 US

Names that sound the same and differ by a letter or two, with baby counts for the same sex. US and E&W counts.

Nicknames

• Carey
• Caro
• Carol
• Carrie
• Cary
• Lina

Listed on Wiktionary under “pet forms”.

If you like Caroline

Girls

• Skyler#670Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #283 in 2015, #670 in 2025
• Skylar#167Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #42 in 2015, #167 in 2025
• Emma#3“entire”^*
• Jocelyn#393“a Geat, a Goth”^*
• Abby#731Diminutive of Abigail, meaning “my Father's joy”^*
• Allie#569Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #255 in 2015, #569 in 2025

For a brother

• Skyler#783Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #360 in 2015, #783 in 2025
• Erick#366Editor’s note Down from #265 in 2015 to #366 in 2025 in the US
• Wyatt#38“war + hard, brave”^*
• Garrett#564Editor’s note Cooling off in the US: #269 in 2015, #564 in 2025
• Carlos#150Spanish and Portuguese form of Charles, meaning “free man”^*
• Alonso#785Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #785 vs #1,897 in 2025

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Germanic, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Caroline’s. Rank is US 2025.