Carolyn is an English variant of Caroline, the feminine form of Charles, which goes back to the Germanic karl and means "free woman" or "free man". It peaked in America in the 1940s and belongs to Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy and to Carolyn Keene, the pen name on the Nancy Drew books. Carolyn ranked number 308 in 2000, slipped to 748 by 2015, left the top 1000 in 2021 and ranks 1222 in 2025.