Kariem
Kariem was given to 5 boys in 2025, #12,963 among boys’ names; 159 Americans have been recorded with it since 1972 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kariem by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Kariem?
#12,963 among boys’ names, 2025
Kariem entered the boys’ rankings after 2015 and stood at #12,963 in 2025.
13 babies in 1975, the peak
Kariem peaked in 1975, when 13 boys were given it, #2,996 among boys’ names. The 5 births of 2025 are 38% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 5 | #12,963 | 2.9 |
| 2021 | 5 | #13,094 | 2.9 |
| 2014 | 6 | #11,422 | 3.1 |
| 2005 | 5 | #12,380 | 2.5 |
| 2002 | 5 | #11,592 | 2.6 |
| 2001 | 5 | #11,471 | 2.6 |
| 1999 | 5 | #10,770 | 2.6 |
| 1997 | 7 | #7,694 | 3.7 |
| 1996 | 5 | #9,779 | 2.6 |
| 1995 | 10 | #5,706 | 5.3 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 7 | #6,119 | 3.7 |
| 1984 | 5 | #6,831 | 2.8 |
| 1983 | 5 | #6,774 | 2.8 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,741 | 4.5 |
| 1980 | 8 | #4,727 | 4.5 |
| 1979 | 11 | #3,691 | 6.4 |
| 1978 | 7 | #4,786 | 4.3 |
| 1977 | 11 | #3,486 | 6.7 |
| 1976 | 12 | #3,166 | 7.6 |
| 1975 | 13 | #2,996 | 8.3 |
| 1973 | 7 | #4,287 | 4.5 |
| 1972 | 7 | #4,205 | 4.3 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kariem a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kariem has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 22 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Kariem: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kariem, and how old are they?
An estimated 149 Americans named Kariem and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 45 years old and half are between 29 and 49. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 172 people named Kariem (0 women and girls, 172 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 142 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 27,871 babies since 1880, Kariem is the sixth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 5 of their 704 babies (<1%), the fifth most given that year.
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 Kariem
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 Kariem and names like it
- Compare Kariem and KareemBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sKariem peaked in 1975.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kariem since 1910.
- The top names of 1975The year the most babies were named Kariem.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Kariem alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with KMost given first.