Karim
Karim was given to 198 boys in 2025, #1,084 among boys’ names; 6,944 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,740 Americans named Karim and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 7 and 32.
Karim dropped 263 places in 2025, the steepest drop among the boys’ top 1,000 of 2024.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karim by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karim mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Karim is “a male given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “noble, generous” (كَرِيم).
From Arabic كَرِيم (karīm, “noble, generous”).
/kəˈɹiːm/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karim?
#1,084 among boys’ names, 2025
Karim rose from #1,091 in 2015 to #1,084 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.09 to 0.12 per 1,000.
376 babies in 2023, the peak
Karim peaked in 2023, when 376 boys were given it, #707 among boys’ names. The 198 births of 2025 are 53% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 198 | #1,084 | 0.12 |
| 2024 | 305 | #821 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 376 | #707 | 0.22 |
| 2022 | 328 | #772 | 0.19 |
| 2021 | 194 | #1,089 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 212 | #1,000 | 0.12 |
| 2019 | 192 | #1,063 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 180 | #1,092 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 193 | #1,044 | 0.10 |
| 2016 | 236 | #914 | 0.12 |
Every recorded year (69)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 179 | #1,091 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 180 | #1,076 | 0.09 |
| 2013 | 162 | #1,121 | 0.09 |
| 2012 | 155 | #1,177 | 0.08 |
| 2011 | 141 | #1,238 | 0.07 |
| 2010 | 153 | #1,181 | 0.08 |
| 2009 | 153 | #1,183 | 0.08 |
| 2008 | 131 | #1,328 | 0.06 |
| 2007 | 119 | #1,382 | 0.06 |
| 2006 | 131 | #1,280 | 0.06 |
| 2005 | 120 | #1,285 | 0.06 |
| 2004 | 131 | #1,184 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 129 | #1,162 | 0.07 |
| 2002 | 122 | #1,161 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 114 | #1,192 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 92 | #1,374 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 93 | #1,301 | 0.05 |
| 1998 | 98 | #1,238 | 0.05 |
| 1997 | 115 | #1,102 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 80 | #1,349 | 0.04 |
| 1995 | 73 | #1,382 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 68 | #1,424 | 0.04 |
| 1993 | 82 | #1,251 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 73 | #1,321 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 71 | #1,337 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 78 | #1,253 | 0.04 |
| 1989 | 76 | #1,233 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 72 | #1,193 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 60 | #1,260 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 49 | #1,424 | 0.03 |
| 1985 | 58 | #1,262 | 0.03 |
| 1984 | 66 | #1,118 | 0.04 |
| 1983 | 62 | #1,150 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 57 | #1,237 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 70 | #1,089 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 76 | #1,041 | 0.04 |
| 1979 | 76 | #1,021 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 96 | #879 | 0.06 |
| 1977 | 97 | #863 | 0.06 |
| 1976 | 93 | #870 | 0.06 |
| 1975 | 74 | #957 | 0.05 |
| 1974 | 39 | #1,379 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 46 | #1,228 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 46 | #1,222 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 36 | #1,427 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 23 | #1,874 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 19 | #1,942 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 13 | #2,391 | 0.01 |
| 1967 | 10 | #2,690 | 0.01 |
| 1966 | 17 | #1,928 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 20 | #1,792 | 0.01 |
| 1964 | 10 | #2,752 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 16 | #2,079 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 12 | #2,447 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 6 | #3,842 | under 0.01 |
| 1960 | 9 | #2,970 | under 0.01 |
| 1959 | 9 | #2,935 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 10 | #2,727 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 6 | #3,771 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Karim a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karim has been given almost only to boys: 58 girls in 69 years of records.
Girls and boys named Karim: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karim, and how old are they?
6,740 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 6,944 Americans ever recorded as Karim. The median Karim alive today is 17 years old; half are between 7 and 32.
The 2020 Census counted 8,470 people named Karim (408 women and girls, 8,062 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,241 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 59 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 749 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,050 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,970 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,910 |
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 Karim born?
The states with the most babies named Karim are Texas, California and Florida, with 53% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 29 | #887 | 1.1× |
| California | 27 | #871 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 16 | #900 | 1.1× |
| New York | 15 | #898 | 2.0× |
| Illinois | 12 | #733 | 0.8× |
| New Jersey | 9 | #734 | 1.5× |
| Michigan | 8 | #873 | 0.6× |
| Arizona | 7 | #816 | 1.3× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,159 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 5 | #1,378 | 0.4× |
Where Karim is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karim is most over-represented in New York: since 1957 it was given 2.0 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 boys’ 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 Karim 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 27,610 babies since 1880, Karim is the second most given (25% of them). In 2025 it was given to 198 of their 691 babies (29%), again the second 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 Karim
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 Karim and names like it
- Compare Karim and KareemBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sKarim peaked in 2023.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karim since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Karim: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2023The year the most babies were named Karim.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Karim alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with KMost given first.