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Karine

#14,035 in 2025Girls' name

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

Karine has been given to 1,212 babies in the U.S. since 1917. In 2025 it ranked #14,035 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1966, with 53 recorded.

Babies named Karine, 2025

1 in 553,000

Karine over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Karine: meaning, origin, and history

Multiple documented origins; meaning depends on tradition

French, Ancient Greek and Old Norse

What Karine means

Karine has more than one naming route in the cited origin entries: “pure, chaste”.

The naming story behind Karine

A separate documented entry treats Karine as a form of Carina. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

A separate documented entry treats Karine as a form of Karin. That is a personal-name relationship, which differs from translating the letters of the modern spelling into one universal English word. The linked origin entry identifies the context of this relationship.

Origin, language, and formation

Karine is used in English, French and Norwegian Bokmål. Its origins include French, Ancient Greek and Old Norse.

Karine comes through French Karine.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Karin, Karina and Katrina.

Pronunciation and spelling

In French, Karine is pronounced /ka.ʁin/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,212 girls were recorded with the name Karine between 1917 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 53 in 1966; its best national rank was #1,538 in 1966.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #11,594 in 2020 to #14,035 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #17,778 in 2015 to #14,035 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Karine?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 553,000
6 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 268,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#14,035
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
382,984 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Karine sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 382,984 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Karine. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Karines were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Karine was born before 1983 — so the typical Karine is around 42 today.

Median birth year
1983
About 42 years old
Biggest decade
1980s
17.2% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
20.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,125
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1980s — 17.2% of all recorded uses (209).

Is Karine rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,441
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
+3,743
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.20×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
11.3%
Peak was 1966 (53)
Years since peak
59
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
29.4% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,538
1966

Spellings of Karine

Karine is not the most common spelling — Karen is, with 37.5% against Karine's 0.05%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Karine is used

Across 1910–2025, Karine was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 178,483 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2New York1 in 100,000
  3. 3Illinois1 in —
  4. 4New Jersey1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Karine has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Karine around the world

Where Karine ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1996–2008
    #5,545
    in 2008
  • Scotland
    1979–1994
    #629
    in 1994
  • France
    1939–2025
    #6,427
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2018
    #441
    in 2018
  • Canada
    1991–2022
    #3,322
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1959–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Karine by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#14,035
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,441
Best rank ever
#1,538
1966
Peak year
1966
53 that year
First recorded
1917
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,212
Count in 2025
6

Names similar to Karine

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

KaralineKarolineKarimaKarminKarynaKarsenKarsonKarymeKarmynKarlynKarmanKarimeKarelyKarizmaKariahKareliKareenaKaralynKarenaKareemaBlaineKarrineKarismaKareen

Sibling names for Karine

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Karine

Top names of 1966, Karine's peak yearThe 1960s in fullOther names that peaked in 1966Girls' names starting with K