Karsten
Karsten is given to both girls and boys: 5 girls and 25 boys were given it in 2025 (#16,075 among girls’ names and #4,193 among boys’, #7,974 among all names counting both); 3,424 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,310 Americans named Karsten and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 21 years old and half are between 14 and 31.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karsten by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Karsten mean?
Wiktionary, German section
Karsten is “a male given name”
Low German form of Christian.
/ˈkarstən/
Meaning: Wiktionary, German section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Karsten?
#4,193 among boys’ names, 2025
Karsten fell from #2,044 in 2015 to #4,193 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 36.5 to 14.6 per million.
140 babies in 2010, the peak
Karsten peaked in 2010, when 140 babies were given it (135 boys, #1,287 among boys’ names). The 30 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 21% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 25 | #4,193 | 14.6 |
| 2024 | 28 | #3,931 | 16.3 |
| 2023 | 27 | #4,062 | 15.8 |
| 2022 | 24 | #4,366 | 13.7 |
| 2021 | 42 | #2,944 | 24.0 |
| 2020 | 27 | #3,864 | 15.6 |
| 2019 | 73 | #2,009 | 40.7 |
| 2018 | 61 | #2,246 | 33.6 |
| 2017 | 62 | #2,177 | 33.5 |
| 2016 | 77 | #1,911 | 40.6 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 70 | #2,044 | 36.5 |
| 2014 | 87 | #1,739 | 45.3 |
| 2013 | 100 | #1,565 | 52.9 |
| 2012 | 109 | #1,484 | 57.5 |
| 2011 | 113 | #1,454 | 59.5 |
| 2010 | 135 | #1,287 | 70.4 |
| 2009 | 104 | #1,568 | 52.4 |
| 2008 | 108 | #1,509 | 52.9 |
| 2007 | 125 | #1,344 | 60.2 |
| 2006 | 131 | #1,281 | 63.7 |
| 2005 | 115 | #1,318 | 57.6 |
| 2004 | 115 | #1,300 | 57.9 |
| 2003 | 97 | #1,385 | 49.1 |
| 2002 | 84 | #1,499 | 43.3 |
| 2001 | 107 | #1,246 | 55.1 |
| 2000 | 98 | #1,316 | 49.9 |
| 1999 | 67 | #1,616 | 34.9 |
| 1998 | 63 | #1,652 | 33.0 |
| 1997 | 51 | #1,845 | 27.1 |
| 1996 | 51 | #1,797 | 26.9 |
| 1995 | 69 | #1,437 | 36.2 |
| 1994 | 46 | #1,852 | 23.8 |
| 1993 | 33 | #2,313 | 16.8 |
| 1992 | 42 | #1,939 | 21.0 |
| 1991 | 44 | #1,807 | 21.8 |
| 1990 | 32 | #2,231 | 15.6 |
| 1989 | 24 | #2,647 | 12.0 |
| 1988 | 34 | #1,926 | 17.8 |
| 1987 | 19 | #2,776 | 10.2 |
| 1986 | 29 | #2,028 | 15.7 |
| 1985 | 16 | #3,015 | 8.7 |
| 1984 | 13 | #3,367 | 7.2 |
| 1983 | 14 | #3,151 | 7.8 |
| 1982 | 18 | #2,644 | 9.9 |
| 1981 | 24 | #2,165 | 13.4 |
| 1980 | 20 | #2,486 | 11.2 |
| 1979 | 23 | #2,197 | 13.4 |
| 1978 | 34 | #1,634 | 20.7 |
| 1977 | 26 | #1,927 | 15.8 |
| 1976 | 34 | #1,588 | 21.7 |
| 1975 | 25 | #1,917 | 16.0 |
| 1974 | 25 | #1,862 | 15.9 |
| 1973 | 26 | #1,755 | 16.7 |
| 1972 | 24 | #1,851 | 14.8 |
| 1971 | 29 | #1,651 | 16.4 |
| 1970 | 37 | #1,384 | 19.9 |
| 1969 | 24 | #1,705 | 13.4 |
| 1968 | 11 | #2,664 | 6.3 |
| 1967 | 13 | #2,295 | 7.5 |
| 1966 | 12 | #2,395 | 6.7 |
| 1965 | 11 | #2,548 | 5.9 |
| 1964 | 8 | #3,158 | 4.0 |
| 1962 | 5 | #4,355 | 2.4 |
| 1960 | 14 | #2,263 | 6.6 |
| 1958 | 7 | #3,420 | 3.3 |
| 1954 | 5 | #4,099 | 2.5 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,506 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Karsten a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,424 Americans recorded as Karsten, 5% are girls and 95% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Karsten: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karsten, and how old are they?
3,310 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 3,424 Americans ever recorded as Karsten. The median Karsten alive today is 21 years old; half are between 14 and 31.
The 2020 Census counted 3,349 people named Karsten (204 women and girls, 3,145 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,174 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 33 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 337 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 518 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,710 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 719 |
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 Karsten born?
The states with the most babies named Karsten are California, Texas and Washington, with 45% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Washington is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 197 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Texas | 136 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Washington | 103 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| Oklahoma | 76 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| Arizona | 73 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 59 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Minnesota | 54 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Wisconsin | 52 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Utah | 35 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Florida | 29 | not ranked | 0.2× |
Where Karsten is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karsten is most over-represented in Washington: since 1950 it was given 1.4 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 Karsten 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 7,124 babies since 1880, Karsten is the most given (48% of them). In 2025 it was given to 30 of their 54 babies (56%), again the 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 Karsten
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 Karsten and names like it
- Compare Karsten and CarstenBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKarsten peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karsten since 1910.
- German namesWiktionary’s origin for Karsten: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Karsten.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Karsten alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.