Carp
surname · Latin script
Meaning: Nickname from the carp, OFr carpe; first attested William Carpe 1275 RH (Norfolk)
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 15 countries · latest register: Census Bureau, 2020
/ˈkɑɹp/(recorded in a dictionary) English · from Wiktionary
Carp is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Romania than in any other country.
- RORomania≈1 in 5.8Kfew records(inferred from the name graph)
- MDMoldova≈1 in 6.2K
- FIFinland1 in 93K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Countries with no figure are shown too: flat where a national register lists the name without counting it, hatched where only our records hold it. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Romania (inferred from the name graph)
- Record sources
- 242 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 5.8K (inferred from the name graph)
≈3,700 people, est.
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Romania, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)Nickname from the carp, OFr carpe; first attested William Carpe 1275 RH (Norfolk).
Cited for this meaning 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Carp counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos); INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal); e-services.md — living population register; DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Carp is also recorded in 4 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In Romanian, gr. K*Toc < xup7r65 fruct". 1. fam. (BAI VI), -esti (16 B II 19). 2. Carpu Brenevig, mold., 1660 (Sd VI 105). 3. Carpe, I. (Buc). 4. Cu met. : Crdpesti s. (Cat) sau < subst. c r a p. 6. Prob. Carp is (Arh) ; Carpig, V. (Ard). Uneori ca prescurtare din Policarp. 7. Cdrpina f. (Ant Ar) sau < subst. carp en. Carstofie v. Grist of or IV 2. Cart/ea, -eul v. Carta 2, 3.
as a nameDictionar Onomastic Rominesc
In English, Any of various freshwater fish of the family Cyprinidae; specifically the common carp, Cyprinus carpio.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Romanian, CARP s. n. Grup de opt oase mici care alcătuiesc scheletul încheieturii mâinii, articulându-se cu oasele antebrațului și metacarpului.
as a wordDEX online (dexonline.ro) - DEX '96 / DEX '98 definitions with etymology
In Romanian, CARPI s. m. pl. Populație geto-dacică ce a trăit pe teritoriul românesc, la est de Muntii Carpați.
as a wordDEX online (dexonline.ro) - DEX '96 / DEX '98 definitions with etymology
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Petre P. Carpb. 1837RORomanian politician (1837-1919)
- Johan Carpb. 1893NLDutch jurist (1893-1979)
- Joop Carpb. 1897NLsailor (1897-1962)
- Bernard Carpb. 1901NLDutch sailor, olympic gold medalist, board member at Erven Lucas Bols, golfplayer and throphy hunter (1901–1966)
- Matatias Carpb. 1904RORomanian lawyer (1904-1953)
- Tony Carpb. 1911USAmerican basketball player
- Ilie Carpb. 1960MDSoviet and Moldovan footballer (1960-2021)
- Lilian Carpb. 1978MDMoldavian politician
- Mike Carpb. 1986USAmerican baseball player
- Cătălin Carpb. 1993MDfootball player
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)Evidence
(measured from records)28 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 15 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 944 | #27,108 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 914 | #25,430 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 722 | #31,960 |
| ES Spain | INE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal) | — | 356 | #10,523 |
| ES Spain | INE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos) | — | 356 | #10,491 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 60 | #19,318 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Sukunimitilasto (Finnish surnames register) | — | 24 | — |
| US United States | wru Name Dictionary — US surnames, Census 2010 subset (Khanna et al.) | — | — | — |
Reference works 4
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Carp mean, and where does it come from?
- Nickname from the carp, OFr carpe; first attested William Carpe 1275 RH (Norfolk). Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- How do you pronounce Carp?
- In English /ˈkɑɹp/ (Wiktionary).
- In which country does Carp have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 3.7 thousand people named Carp in Romania, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled carp.
- How common is the name Carp?
- In the United States, the national register counted 722 people named Carp in 2010, about 1 in 461 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Carp?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/carpThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Carp”. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.