Carlo
The Italian form of Carolus, from a Latin word for a free man, someone who answers to no master. In Poland it stays foreign: fewer than 300 men carry it, and most Poles have never met one.
Carlo Pronunciation
Carlo is pronounced TSAHR-lo (/ˈt͡sarlɔ/).
What Carlo means
Where Carlo comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Carlo is the Italian form of a name that entered Latin as Carolus. The short meaning attached to it, free man, describes a person bound to no master, someone who answers for himself. Italy took the Latin and softened its ending, and the final o marks it plainly as Italian.
Two writers fixed the name in memory. Carlo Goldoni reshaped Venetian comedy in the eighteenth century, and Carlo Collodi, born Carlo Lorenzini, gave the world Pinocchio in 1883. Both signed their pages with the same short root that means free man.
On a Polish class register the name looks like a visitor, closer to Karol than to anything native. It still travels well. A child written down as Carlo at the urząd carries a Latin word for freedom under an Italian coat. The name is short. Its origin is Carolus, and its meaning is a free man.
How many people are named Carlo
1 in 76236 men in Poland is named Carlo. 280 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1815 among male names.
Carlo's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 boys were given the name in 2025. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Carlo as a middle name
Carlo is a first name for 280 men in Poland and a middle name for another 107, a 72/28 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 681st, between Lars (108) and Furkan (107).
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#679 Juhani108
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#680 Lars108
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#681 Carlo107
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#682 Furkan107
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#683 Mike107