Humanverse

Kari vs Karil

American parents have registered 60,627 Karis since 1880, against 55 Karils. Kari is still ahead, with 113 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Kari Karil

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

Kari has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1934 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1958, when Kari had 489 and Karil had 19.

Side by side

  Kari Karil
Total US births 60,62755
Most in one year 2,24319
Babies in 2025 113under 5
Estimated living today 57,00050
Median age today 4666
Peak year 19751958
Best rank 129th girls2,663rd girls
Rank in 2025 2,076thunranked
First recorded 19341958
Girls / boys 59,696 / 93155 / 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 Karils alive today are over 66; half the Karis are over 46. That is 20 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: Kari and Karil.