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Karalynn vs Karla

American parents have registered 91,895 Karlas since 1880, against 765 Karalynns. Karla is still ahead, with 340 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Karalynn 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 2015, when Karalynn had 29 and Karla had 617.

Side by side

  Karalynn Karla
Total US births 76591,895
Most in one year 412,066
Babies in 2025 7340
Estimated living today 75084,000
Median age today 1841
Peak year 20101964
Best rank 3,745th girls182nd girls
Rank in 2025 11,932nd799th
First recorded 19631915
Girls / boys 765 / 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 Karalynns are over 18. That is 23 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: Karalynn and Karla.