Karena
Karena was given to 15 girls in 2025, #7,305 among girls’ names; 3,508 Americans have been recorded with it since 1946 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,360 Americans named Karena and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 38 years old and half are between 27 and 51.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karena by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Karena?
#7,305 among girls’ names, 2025
Karena fell from #6,134 in 2015 to #7,305 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 11.8 to 9.3 per million.
114 babies in 1974, the peak
Karena peaked in 1974, when 114 girls were given it, #1,043 among girls’ names. The 15 births of 2025 are 13% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 15 | #7,305 | 9.3 |
| 2024 | 12 | #8,689 | 7.4 |
| 2023 | 7 | #12,778 | 4.4 |
| 2022 | 7 | #12,873 | 4.3 |
| 2021 | 10 | #9,912 | 6.1 |
| 2020 | 17 | #6,767 | 10.5 |
| 2019 | 20 | #6,070 | 11.9 |
| 2018 | 19 | #6,378 | 11.2 |
| 2017 | 22 | #5,738 | 12.7 |
| 2016 | 26 | #5,212 | 14.7 |
Every recorded year (74)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 21 | #6,134 | 11.8 |
| 2014 | 15 | #7,861 | 8.4 |
| 2013 | 25 | #5,397 | 14.2 |
| 2012 | 26 | #5,321 | 14.8 |
| 2011 | 26 | #5,289 | 14.8 |
| 2010 | 28 | #5,028 | 15.8 |
| 2009 | 41 | #3,834 | 22.3 |
| 2008 | 33 | #4,588 | 17.5 |
| 2007 | 36 | #4,253 | 18.7 |
| 2006 | 40 | #3,822 | 21.0 |
| 2005 | 40 | #3,676 | 21.6 |
| 2004 | 58 | #2,787 | 31.6 |
| 2003 | 50 | #3,020 | 27.4 |
| 2002 | 49 | #2,992 | 27.3 |
| 2001 | 79 | #2,104 | 43.9 |
| 2000 | 82 | #2,025 | 45.2 |
| 1999 | 58 | #2,482 | 32.7 |
| 1998 | 79 | #1,929 | 44.7 |
| 1997 | 74 | #1,950 | 42.5 |
| 1996 | 86 | #1,739 | 49.1 |
| 1995 | 72 | #1,926 | 40.9 |
| 1994 | 89 | #1,675 | 49.8 |
| 1993 | 95 | #1,602 | 52.5 |
| 1992 | 81 | #1,788 | 43.9 |
| 1991 | 66 | #2,059 | 35.2 |
| 1990 | 68 | #1,996 | 35.8 |
| 1989 | 78 | #1,739 | 42.3 |
| 1988 | 67 | #1,845 | 37.6 |
| 1987 | 69 | #1,739 | 39.7 |
| 1986 | 67 | #1,743 | 39.1 |
| 1985 | 62 | #1,819 | 36.0 |
| 1984 | 49 | #2,065 | 29.1 |
| 1983 | 61 | #1,757 | 36.5 |
| 1982 | 60 | #1,814 | 35.4 |
| 1981 | 68 | #1,685 | 40.8 |
| 1980 | 70 | #1,649 | 42.2 |
| 1979 | 78 | #1,508 | 48.6 |
| 1978 | 86 | #1,369 | 56.1 |
| 1977 | 96 | #1,252 | 62.6 |
| 1976 | 92 | #1,228 | 62.8 |
| 1975 | 98 | #1,182 | 67.2 |
| 1974 | 114 | #1,043 | 77.7 |
| 1973 | 100 | #1,123 | 68.6 |
| 1972 | 97 | #1,137 | 63.8 |
| 1971 | 100 | #1,163 | 60.1 |
| 1970 | 101 | #1,149 | 57.8 |
| 1969 | 75 | #1,309 | 44.5 |
| 1968 | 49 | #1,660 | 29.9 |
| 1967 | 34 | #2,022 | 20.6 |
| 1966 | 27 | #2,325 | 16.0 |
| 1965 | 20 | #2,779 | 11.3 |
| 1964 | 13 | #3,777 | 6.9 |
| 1963 | 11 | #4,127 | 5.7 |
| 1962 | 16 | #3,224 | 8.1 |
| 1961 | 16 | #3,248 | 7.9 |
| 1959 | 9 | #4,455 | 4.4 |
| 1958 | 8 | #4,695 | 4.0 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,725 | 2.9 |
| 1955 | 9 | #4,217 | 4.6 |
| 1953 | 6 | #5,348 | 3.2 |
| 1951 | 5 | #5,794 | 2.8 |
| 1950 | 5 | #5,669 | 2.9 |
| 1948 | 8 | #4,046 | 4.7 |
| 1946 | 6 | #4,694 | 3.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Karena a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karena has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 74 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karena: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karena, and how old are they?
3,360 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 3,508 Americans ever recorded as Karena. The median Karena alive today is 38 years old; half are between 27 and 51.
The 2020 Census counted 3,292 people named Karena (3,291 women and girls, 1 man or boy). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,338 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 95 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,160 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,110 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 790 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 215 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Karena born?
The states with the most babies named Karena are California, New York and Texas, with 69% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 486 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| New York | 190 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Texas | 114 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 64 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Florida | 53 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 48 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Michigan | 44 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Illinois | 40 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Indiana | 28 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Washington | 24 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Karena is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karena is most over-represented in California: since 1946 it was given 1.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Karena with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 86,487 babies since 1880, Karena is the third most given (4.1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 15 of their 548 babies (2.7%), again the third most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Karena
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Karena and names like it
- Compare Karena and KarinaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKarena peaked in 1974.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karena since 1910.
- The top names of 1974The year the most babies were named Karena.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Karena alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.