Karel
given name · Latin script
Meaning: Dutch/Central European form of Charles, from Germanic Karl 'free man'
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
Karel is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Czechia than in any other country, where it is the 17th most common given name.
- CZCzechia1 in 51(measured from records)
- BEBelgium≈1 in 2.2K
- USUnited States1 in 134K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Karel itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Czechia (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 258 (measured from records)
- 1 in 51 (inferred from the name graph)
208,144 people
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Czechia
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
Dutch/Central European form of Charles, from Germanic Karl 'free man'.
Sources 1
- Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
Attested across 11 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Karel 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.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CZ Czechia | #17 | 208,144 | 1 in 51 | 208K | Karel | 183 |
| ZA South Africa | — | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 5.2K | — | Karel | 31 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 5,545as Carel | 1 in 3.1K | 9.7K | Karel | 70 |
| BE Belgium | — | ≈5,300 est. | ≈1 in 2.2K | 13 | Karel | 62 |
| US United States | — | 2,488 | 1 in 134K | 1.3K | Karel | 258 |
| SI Slovenia | #480 | 1,018 | 1 in 2.1K | 1K | Karel | 10 |
| EE Estonia | #497 | ≈590 est. | ≈1 in 2.1K | 16 | Karel | 44 |
208,144 people counted by MVČR — living population register 2017. 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: MVČR — living population register 2017; Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Familienaam.be — Belgian family-name frequency (population register); SURS — resident population given names; Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed). 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)
Karel is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Dutch, German, Czech, and Slovenian; from the personal name Karel (see Charles).
as a nameDictionary of American Family Names
In Czech, a male given name, equivalent to English Charles
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In French, Forme scandinave de Charles, d’origine germanique, « viril ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In German, männl. Vom., tschechische (Karel) und niederländische (Karel) Form von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
Libre
as a name25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado
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)
- Karl IV.b. 1316CZnot in their usual nameHoly Roman Emperor
- William IV, Prince of Orangeb. 1711NLnot in their usual namehereditary stadtholder of the Netherlands (1711-1751)
- Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraineb. 1712FRnot in their usual nameAustrian general (1712-1780)
- Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschenb. 1771FRnot in their usual nameArchduke of Austria (1771-1847)
- Karel Čapekb. 1890CZCzech writer (1890–1938)
- Prince Charles, Count of Flandersb. 1903BEnot in their usual nameprince, painter (1903-1983)
- Karel Appelb. 1921NLDutch painter, sculptor, and poet (1921-2006)
- Karel Schwarzenbergb. 1937CZCzech politician, minister of foreign affairs and vice prime minister (1937–2023)
- Karel Rodenb. 1962CZCzech actor
- Karel Poborskýb. 1972CZCzech footballer
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).
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 90 sources across 44 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CZ Czechia | MVČR — living population register 2017 | — | 208K | #23 |
| CZ Czechia | naše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot | — | 104K | #26 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 9.7K | #410 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.3K | #6,445 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.2K | #6,445 |
| SI Slovenia | SURS — resident population given names | 2025 | 1K | #182 |
| SI Slovenia | stat.si Imena rojstva — full name register (per-token frequency + rank) | — | 982 | #398 |
| EE Estonia | Statistics Estonia — per-name Population Register counts (nimed) | — | 877 | #182 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2009 | 9 | — |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 7 | #35,090 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 5 | — |
| EE Estonia | Siseministeerium — population register name list 2023 | 2023 | — | — |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
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 Karel mean, and where does it come from?
- Dutch/Central European form of Charles, from Germanic Karl 'free man'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
- What are other forms of the name Karel?
- In the etymology graph, Carlos, Charles and Carol are forms of the same name in other languages.
- In which country does Karel have the most bearers?
- In Czechia, the national register counted about 208 thousand people named Karel, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled karel.
- Where is Karel most common?
- Karel is densest in Czechia, where the national register counts about 1 in 51 people carrying it.
- Is Karel a male or female name?
- Karel is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How common is the name Karel?
- In Czechia, the national register counted 208,144 people named Karel, about 1 in 51 residents.
- How common is Karel compared with other names?
- In Czechia, Karel is the 17th most common given name of 16,679 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Karel?
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/karelThe 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, “Karel” — the 17th most common given name in Czechia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.