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Karaline vs Karla

American parents have registered 91,895 Karlas since 1880, against 779 Karalines. Karla is still ahead, with 340 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Karaline against Karla, 1880 to 2025 0 600 1.2k 1.8k 2.4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Karaline Karla

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

Karla has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1915 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2020, when Karaline had 30 and Karla had 420.

Side by side

  Karaline Karla
Total US births 77991,895
Most in one year 402,066
Babies in 2025 14340
Estimated living today 77084,000
Median age today 1541
Peak year 20141964
Best rank 3,778th girls182nd girls
Rank in 2025 7,491st799th
First recorded 19751915
Girls / boys 779 / 091,586 / 309

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 Karlas alive today are over 41; half the Karalines are over 15. That is 26 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: Karaline and Karla.