Carlos
A surname that usually began as a form of Charles, ultimately from the Germanic name meaning “free man” or “strong, manly.”
The #2,357 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 19,968 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The surname Carlos is generally treated as a variant or corruption of Carolus, the Latin form of Charles. In the older surname dictionaries, it is glossed simply as “the same as Charles,” with Charles traced back to Germanic carl/carl, meaning a man, especially one free in status, and by extension strong or valiant. In some cases the name may also reflect Spanish or other Romance-language use of Carlos as a personal name, later inherited as a surname.
History
The name appears in English surname collections as an uncommon surname, especially in northern English records, and later as a spelling influenced by the familiar given name Carlos. Similar forms are found in French and Spanish traditions, where Carlos is a standard given name. In modern usage, bearers in English-speaking countries may have ancestry from multiple naming streams, so the surname can be occupationally ambiguous by family line even when its ultimate root is the same personal name.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname writers often treated Carlos as just one more spelling-family relative of Charles, Careless, and Carolus.
From the historical record
“Cumberland. CARLOS. CARLOSS. A corruption of Carolus, Charles. CARLTON. CARLETON. The Eng- lish gazetteer shows twenty-two parishes, townships, &c. so called, and there are many others. Lord Dorchester's family deduce from Carleton, co. Cumberland. CARLYON. An estate near Truro, Cornwall, in which co. tlie family…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom