Karthik
Karthik was given to 20 boys in 2025, #4,948 among boys’ names; 1,495 Americans have been recorded with it since 1977 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,470 Americans named Karthik and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 12 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Karthik by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Karthik?
#4,948 among boys’ names, 2025
Karthik fell from #2,334 in 2015 to #4,948 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 29.2 to 11.7 per million.
79 babies in 2010, the peak
Karthik peaked in 2010, when 79 boys were given it, #1,846 among boys’ names. The 20 births of 2025 are 25% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 20 | #4,948 | 11.7 |
| 2024 | 18 | #5,335 | 10.4 |
| 2023 | 21 | #4,807 | 12.3 |
| 2022 | 26 | #4,139 | 14.9 |
| 2021 | 20 | #4,853 | 11.4 |
| 2020 | 32 | #3,453 | 18.5 |
| 2019 | 36 | #3,223 | 20.1 |
| 2018 | 37 | #3,133 | 20.4 |
| 2017 | 41 | #2,921 | 22.2 |
| 2016 | 57 | #2,318 | 30.0 |
Every recorded year (45)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 56 | #2,334 | 29.2 |
| 2014 | 63 | #2,165 | 32.8 |
| 2013 | 64 | #2,100 | 33.8 |
| 2012 | 69 | #2,023 | 36.4 |
| 2011 | 59 | #2,219 | 31.1 |
| 2010 | 79 | #1,846 | 41.2 |
| 2009 | 56 | #2,333 | 28.2 |
| 2008 | 57 | #2,303 | 27.9 |
| 2007 | 62 | #2,176 | 29.9 |
| 2006 | 57 | #2,234 | 27.7 |
| 2005 | 44 | #2,541 | 22.0 |
| 2004 | 41 | #2,616 | 20.7 |
| 2003 | 45 | #2,372 | 22.8 |
| 2002 | 52 | #2,075 | 26.8 |
| 2001 | 45 | #2,258 | 23.2 |
| 2000 | 41 | #2,355 | 20.9 |
| 1999 | 38 | #2,375 | 19.8 |
| 1998 | 38 | #2,330 | 19.9 |
| 1997 | 30 | #2,644 | 15.9 |
| 1996 | 23 | #3,156 | 12.1 |
| 1995 | 17 | #3,763 | 8.9 |
| 1994 | 24 | #2,985 | 12.4 |
| 1993 | 16 | #3,917 | 8.2 |
| 1992 | 14 | #4,219 | 7.0 |
| 1991 | 12 | #4,621 | 5.9 |
| 1990 | 9 | #5,594 | 4.4 |
| 1989 | 10 | #4,999 | 5.0 |
| 1988 | 12 | #4,046 | 6.3 |
| 1987 | 11 | #4,095 | 5.9 |
| 1986 | 7 | #5,644 | 3.8 |
| 1985 | 8 | #4,927 | 4.3 |
| 1984 | 9 | #4,385 | 5.0 |
| 1982 | 6 | #6,018 | 3.3 |
| 1981 | 8 | #4,743 | 4.5 |
| 1977 | 5 | #6,341 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Karthik a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Karthik has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 45 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Karthik: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Karthik, and how old are they?
1,470 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 1,495 Americans ever recorded as Karthik. The median Karthik alive today is 17 years old; half are between 12 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 4,452 people named Karthik (18 women and girls, 4,434 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,349 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.3 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 178 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 801 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 487 |
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 Karthik born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 5 | #2,770 | 0.8× |
Where Karthik is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Karthik is most over-represented in California: since 1977 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 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 Karthik with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Karthik
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 Karthik and names like it
- Compare Karthik and TalonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sKarthik peaked in 2010.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Karthik since 1910.
- The top names of 2010The year the most babies were named Karthik.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Karthik alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.