Kareli vs Karen
American parents have registered 990,774 Karens since 1880, against 513 Karelis. Karen is still ahead, with 175 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Kareli Karen
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
Karen has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1881 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.
The closest they came was 2025, when Kareli had 36 and Karen had 175.
Side by side
| Kareli | Karen | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 513 | 990,774 |
| Most in one year | 36 | 40,668 |
| Babies in 2025 | 36 | 175 |
| Estimated living today | 510 | 803,000 |
| Median age today | 14 | 65 |
| Peak year | 2025 | 1957 |
| Best rank | 3,975th girls | 5th girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 3,975th | 1,279th |
| First recorded | 1991 | 1881 |
| Girls / boys | 513 / 0 | 987,989 / 2,785 |
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 Karens alive today are over 65; half the Karelis are over 14. That is 51 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Kareli California (6.7×), Texas (4.2×)
- Karen the District of Columbia (1.7×), Rhode Island (1.5×), Wisconsin (1.4×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Kareli and Karen.