Hi
Caroline,
Caroline is a French/English/German/Scandinavian form (depends on the pronunciation) of the name
Carola.
Carola is a feminine version of
Carolus which is the latinized form of
Karl.
Carola can be a direct latinization of
Karla as well, which is the female version of
Karl.
Karl (m) ->
Karla (f) ->
Carola (f) ->
Caroline (f)
or
Karl (m) ->
Carolus (m) ->
Carola (f) ->
Caroline (f)
-------
By the way - on this site
Karl is said to be a form of
Charles, but actually it is the other way round:
Karl (m) ->
Carolus (m) ->
Charles (m)
-------
Karl is an Old Norse and Old
German name meaning "man, free man". Originally it was used as a kind of epithet and later as a first name.
The English word "churl" has got the same Germanic root (originally there wasn't anything negative about the meaning ;) )
As
Miranda puts it - there's no change of meaning. A form of
Karl would never mean "woman" even if it's a female version of
Karl.
You mentioned that you found the meaning "a song" somewhere. Maybe the author of that idea thought of the vocabulary word "chorale" which looks and sounds quite close to
Carole, which is another form of
Caroline...?
Regards,
Satu