Carl
A surname with two main roots: in some families it comes from the personal name Charles/Carl, while in others it reflects an older word for “man” or “rustic.”
The #3,071 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 26,413 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Carl has more than one plausible source. In many cases it is a short form or foreign equivalent of Charles, ultimately from Latin Carolus. But some records, especially in Scotland and northern England, also connect Carl with Old English ceorl, meaning “man,” “free peasant,” or “rustic.” The surname may therefore be either patronymic or descriptive depending on the family line.
History
Medieval records show the name in forms such as Carl, Carle, and related spellings, and later surname writers noted that it was especially common in Scotland in the sense of “man” or “countryman.” Elsewhere, it could simply reflect use of Carl as a form of Charles. Because the surname has multiple independent origins, different bearers of Carl need not share the same ancestry.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Some 19th-century surname writers explicitly remarked that Carl could mean “a man” in Scots usage, not just a form of Charles.
From the historical record
“CARGILL. A parish in Perthshire. CARL. CARRAL. CARLIN. Foreign modifications of Carolus, Charles. CARLE. A-Sax. ceorl, a man, a rustic, a stout man. Carl is used in all these seuses in Scotland. Also see under Caryll. CARLEILL. See Carlisle. CARLEY. Scot, carlie, a little man— a diminutive of earl. Jamieson.…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom