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Kara vs Karaline

American parents have registered 102,025 Karas since 1880, against 779 Karalines. Kara is still ahead, with 226 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Kara against Karaline, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Kara Karaline

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Kara has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1896 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Kara had 427 and Karaline had 30.

Side by side

  Kara Karaline
Total US births 102,025779
Most in one year 3,28140
Babies in 2025 22614
Estimated living today 98,000770
Median age today 3715
Peak year 19912014
Best rank 106th girls3,778th girls
Rank in 2025 1,071st7,491st
First recorded 18961975
Girls / boys 101,743 / 282779 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Karas alive today are over 37; half the Karalines are over 15. That is 22 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Kara and Karaline.