Karene
Karene was last recorded in 1997, when 6 babies were given it; 501 Americans have been recorded with it between 1916 and 1997 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karene by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karene mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Karene is “a female given name, variant of Karen.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karene?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #12,861, in 1997; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
17 babies in 1963, the peak
Karene peaked in 1963, when 17 girls were given it, #3,118 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 6 | #12,861 | 3.4 |
| 1993 | 6 | #12,547 | 3.3 |
| 1990 | 7 | #10,732 | 3.7 |
| 1988 | 5 | #12,711 | 2.8 |
| 1986 | 5 | #11,747 | 2.9 |
| 1985 | 6 | #9,877 | 3.5 |
| 1984 | 5 | #11,166 | 3.0 |
| 1983 | 6 | #9,546 | 3.6 |
| 1981 | 10 | #6,549 | 6.0 |
| 1980 | 11 | #6,086 | 6.6 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 9 | #6,977 | 5.6 |
| 1978 | 10 | #6,141 | 6.5 |
| 1977 | 6 | #8,951 | 3.9 |
| 1976 | 5 | #9,941 | 3.4 |
| 1975 | 5 | #9,707 | 3.4 |
| 1974 | 11 | #5,147 | 7.5 |
| 1972 | 10 | #5,250 | 6.6 |
| 1971 | 6 | #7,799 | 3.6 |
| 1970 | 15 | #3,939 | 8.6 |
| 1969 | 11 | #4,561 | 6.5 |
| 1968 | 9 | #4,933 | 5.5 |
| 1967 | 16 | #3,255 | 9.7 |
| 1966 | 11 | #4,065 | 6.5 |
| 1965 | 7 | #5,524 | 4.0 |
| 1964 | 9 | #4,777 | 4.7 |
| 1963 | 17 | #3,118 | 8.8 |
| 1962 | 11 | #4,123 | 5.6 |
| 1961 | 10 | #4,375 | 5.0 |
| 1960 | 12 | #3,801 | 5.9 |
| 1959 | 11 | #3,917 | 5.4 |
| 1958 | 12 | #3,632 | 6.0 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,803 | 5.4 |
| 1956 | 10 | #4,030 | 5.0 |
| 1955 | 7 | #4,944 | 3.6 |
| 1953 | 11 | #3,577 | 5.8 |
| 1952 | 6 | #5,193 | 3.2 |
| 1951 | 8 | #4,195 | 4.4 |
| 1950 | 11 | #3,317 | 6.4 |
| 1949 | 6 | #4,961 | 3.5 |
| 1948 | 12 | #3,055 | 7.1 |
| 1947 | 10 | #3,573 | 5.6 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,206 | 4.5 |
| 1945 | 8 | #3,520 | 6.1 |
| 1944 | 10 | #3,040 | 7.5 |
| 1943 | 8 | #3,653 | 5.7 |
| 1942 | 16 | #2,260 | 11.8 |
| 1941 | 12 | #2,596 | 9.9 |
| 1940 | 10 | #2,851 | 8.7 |
| 1939 | 7 | #3,609 | 6.4 |
| 1938 | 12 | #2,507 | 10.9 |
| 1937 | 11 | #2,634 | 10.3 |
| 1936 | 9 | #2,978 | 8.7 |
| 1935 | 8 | #3,307 | 7.6 |
| 1918 | 6 | #4,559 | 5.2 |
| 1916 | 5 | #4,773 | 4.8 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Karene a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karene has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 55 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karene: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karene, and how old are they?
An estimated 373 Americans named Karene and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (75% of everyone recorded); the median is 62 years old and half are between 50 and 73. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 606 people named Karene (586 women and girls, 20 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 409 born in the U.S. The Census count is 48% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 70,441 babies since 1880, Karene is the eighth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 405 babies recorded by SSA was a Karene (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Karene
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 Karene and names like it
- Compare Karene and KarinaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sKarene peaked in 1963.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karene since 1910.
- The top names of 1963The year the most babies were named Karene.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Karene alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with KMost given first.