Karola
Through the Latin Carolus, Karola carries an old sense of "free man," oddly worn now by girls alone. Most Poles have never met one: it stands in the shadow of the far more common Karolina, and hardly anyone gives it anymore.
Karola Pronunciation
Karola is pronounced kah-RO-lah (/kaˈrɔla/).
What Karola means
Where Karola comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Karola comes to Polish through the Latin Carolus, whose feminine form is Carola. The meaning usually attached to it is "free man," a sense that belonged first to the old Germanic word standing behind the Latin. A girl given this name receives an old idea about being free, reshaped by Latin and then by Polish speech.
It rarely travels alone. Karol is the masculine form beside it, and Karolina is the longer variant that many people know better. The three sit close in sound and share the same root of freedom.
On an official form at the urząd, Karola looks brief next to those fuller cousins. The name keeps its Latin bones while trimming the syllables down. What remains is the plain sense underneath: wolny człowiek, a free person.
How many people are named Karola
1 in 86707 women in Poland is named Karola. 260 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1903 among female names.
Karola's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Where Karola is most popular
Karola is most popular in Masovian, 510% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025).
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Masovian2 girls born+510%
Karola as a middle name
Karola is a first name for 260 women in Poland and a middle name for another 255, a 50/50 split, almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 424th, between Edeltrauda (255) and Martha (255).
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#422 Simona256
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#423 Edeltrauda255
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#424 Karola255
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#425 Martha255
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#426 Margarita252