Karla
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A female given name from the Germanic languages, masculine equivalent Karl
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/karla/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Karla is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In Nicaragua it is the 18th most common given name.
- SVEl Salvador≈1 in 187(inferred from the name graph)
- NINicaragua≈1 in 206
- HNHonduras≈1 in 257
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 3 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 450 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 187 (inferred from the name graph)
113,141 people, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
El Salvador, est.
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)
A female given name from the Germanic languages, masculine equivalent Karl.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.
Often considered alongside
Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Karla, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.
From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Karla 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 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | — | 113,141 | 1 in 2.9K | 113K | Karla | 450 |
| BR Brazil | #354 | 53,844 | 1 in 3.9K | 54K | Karla | 198 |
| EC Ecuador | — | 47,098 | 1 in 359 | 47K | Karla | 85 |
| HN Honduras | #18 | ≈36,000 est. | ≈1 in 257 | — | Karla | 67 |
| SV El Salvador | #57 | ≈35,000 est. | ≈1 in 187 | — | Karla | 76 |
| NI Nicaragua | #18 | ≈30,000 est. | ≈1 in 206 | — | Karla | 53 |
| CR Costa Rica | #26 | 14,251 | 1 in 358 | 14K | Karla | 107 |
113,141 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. 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 — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); INEC — civil registry names; TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names. 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)
Karla 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.
In German, wahrscheinlich zu Karl; etymologische Zugehörigkeit nicht gesichert; 198 Belege.
as a nameDeutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 6: Familiennamen aus Rufnamen
In German, ) Carla: weibl. Vom., weibliche
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
In non, accusative/genitive plural of karl
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In Latvian, upe Krievijā, Čuvašijas Republikā un Tatarstānas Republikā, Svijagas kreisā krasta pieteka
as a wordTēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)
In Latvian, Sievietes vārds
as a wordTēzaurs.lv (Dictionary and Thesaurus of Latvian, AiLab / LU MII)
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)
- Karla Erbováb. 1933CZCzech poet and writer (1933–2024)
- Karla Homolkab. 1970CACanadian convicted killer (manslaughter) and ex-wife of Paul Bernardo
- Karla Sofía Gascónb. 1972ESSpanish actress
- Karla Martínezb. 1976MXMexican television presenter
- Karla Monroigb. 1979USPuerto Rican actress
- Karla Mosleyb. 1981USAmerican actress and singer (born 1981)
- Karla Souzab. 1985MXMexican actress (born 1985)
- Karla Cromeb. 1988GBBritish actress
- Karla Kushb. 1991USAmerican pornographic actress
- Camila Cabellob. 1997CUnot in their usual nameCuban-Mexican-American singer
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)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 113 sources across 54 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 113K | #499 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror) | 2022 | 54K | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 54K | #538 |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — civil registry names | 2024 | 47K | #32 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Nomes (census name API) | — | 40K | #899 |
| CR Costa Rica | TSE — electoral roll (padrón) names | — | 14K | #24 |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | 2020 | 492 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 340 | — |
| EC Ecuador | INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024) | 2024 | 333 | — |
| BR Brazil | IBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname) | — | 197 | #538 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 185 | #499 |
Reference works 7
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Lietuvių kalbos institutas — Lietuvių pavardžių žodynas (Lithuanian surname dictionary)
- 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
- In which country does Karla have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 113 thousand people named Karla, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled karla.
- What does the name Karla mean, and where does it come from?
- A female given name from the Germanic languages, masculine equivalent Karl. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- Is Karla a male or female name?
- Karla is a female 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.
- What are other forms of the name Karla?
- In the etymology graph, Carolyn, Carolina and Carla are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How common is the name Karla?
- In the United States, the national register counted 113,141 people named Karla in 2020, about 1 in 2.9 thousand residents.
- How common is Karla compared with other names?
- In Nicaragua, Karla is the 18th most common given name of 16,569 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Karla?
- A machine transcription gives /karla/ (IPA) for Spanish.
What do you want to know about Karla?
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/karlaThe 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, “Karla” — the 18th most common given name in Nicaragua. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.