The name Carlos is of Spanish and Portuguese origin, and it is a variation of the name Charles. Charles is derived from the Germanic name Karl, which means ‘free man’ or ‘the capable’.
Carlos is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.
The name Carlos isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Carlos ranks 124. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 18 were named Carlos. In the entire USA, approximately 294,556 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Carlos. That is 0.09 % of all living Americans.
The name Carlos is of Spanish and Portuguese origin, and it is a variation of the name Charles. Charles is derived from the Germanic name Karl, which means ‘free man’ or ‘the capable’.
What does 'being free' mean? It means, that a person is able to be themselves without constraint or to fulfill their purpose unhindered. Freedom is often associated with basic human rights.
Carlos Santana (*1947)
The famous American rock and Latin American jazz guitarist is widely known as the leading member of his eponymous band 'Santana.' Spanning over six decades, his career includes a performance at legendary Woodstock Festival in 1969 as well as several hit albums and singles. A younger generation got introduced to him through his hit 'Maria Maria' (featuring the Product G&B, 1999).
Carlos Bernard (*1962)
The American actor is best known for portraying Tony Almeida in the crime drama TV series '24' (2001 – 2006). He resumed the role again in the sequels '24: Solitary' (2009, 2014) and '24: Legacy' (2017). In addition, he appeared in several other series such as 'CSI: Miami' (2011– 2012).
Carlos Watkins (*1993)
The American football defensive end gained widespread recognition for signing in with the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). Before entering the NFL, he played college football at Clemson.
Juan Carlos I (*1938)
The member of the Spanish royal family reigned as King of Spain from 1975 until his abdication in 2014. His full name is Juan Carlos Alfonso V_xD8F4_or Mar_xD85D_ de Borb???? Borb????os Sicilias and he was essential in the Spanish transition to democracy after the death of dictator [Francisco Franco.
When you hear the name Carlos, you might first think of people. But did you know that there are also places with the name Carlos? Are you also called Carlos? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...
bear the name Carlos. Most of them are small, unincorporated communities and you can find them in Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota and West Virgina.
On the Moon, near the massif Mons Hadley, there is a crater called Carlos. This name was given to it by the IAU, the nongovernmental International Astronomical Union.
If we dig really deep into our statistics, we find that there are very few boys' names that have been consistently popular for so long that they have been given to newborns in every single year since the beginning of our records in 1880. In fact, there are only 442 boys' names that appear in our statistics in every single year, and Carlos is one of those very special classics. At the same time, Carlos has never been more popular than it is in this century - in 2001 the name even made it to rank #57 of the most popular boys' names, easily landing in the top 100 of our SmartGenius first name statistics.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Carlos was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
...because: In 2022, 2,585 boys were born and given the name Carlos by their parents. That puts Carlos at #146 on our list of most popular boys' names. It was much less popular in 1884 - only 13 parents chose this name for their newborn son and it ranked 475 on the popularity scale of all boys' names.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter C is a frequent initial letter for boys’ names. This is because 5.2% of all common boys’ names in the US begin with this letter. The most common first letters of boys' names, by the way, are J, A and D.
With six letters, the name Carlos is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.
With 5.2% of all boys' names that begin with a C, this first letter is thus much more common than the average of all letters. And which boys’ name beginning with C do you think is the most common in the US? The answer is... Charles.
If your name is Carlos and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Carlos, you can simply say:
Cat
Apple
Rocket
Lion
Orange
Sun
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Carlos
Carlos
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
C
A
R
L
O
S
In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.
C
A
R
L
O
S
In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Carlos sounds like this:
