Meaning and history
Karol is the Polish and Slovak form of Charles, from a Germanic word meaning “man” or “free man.” It is usually masculine in these languages, though similar spellings can be feminine elsewhere. Pope John Paul II was born Karol Wojtyła, and composer Karol Szymanowski is another famous bearer.
20062006: 137 births, rank #1,574
2007: 149 births, rank #1,537
2008: 87 births, rank #2,253
2009: 97 births, rank #2,090
2010: 78 births, rank #2,405
20112011: 100 births, rank #1,968
2012: 132 births, rank #1,629
2013: 66 births, rank #2,661
2014: 77 births, rank #2,371
2015: 66 births, rank #2,685
20162016: 43 births, rank #3,588
2017: 36 births, rank #4,066
2018: 44 births, rank #3,497
2019: 72 births, rank #2,451
2020: 55 births, rank #2,931
20212021: 52 births, rank #3,112
2022: 59 births, rank #2,856
2023: 61 births, rank #2,789
2024: 41 births, rank #3,695
20252025: 45 births, rank #3,389
Karol rose from #921 to #818 for girls between 1968 and 2005. That year also produced its highest recorded birth count, at 316.