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Karolyn

#6,435 in 2025Girls' name

Variant of Caroline

Karolyn has been given to 5,957 babies in the U.S. since 1912. In 2025 it ranked #6,435 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1946, with 167 recorded.

Babies named Karolyn, 2025

1 in 184,000

Karolyn over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Karolyn: meaning, origin, and history

Variant of Caroline

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Karolyn means

Karolyn is a variant of Caroline.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Caroline.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,957 girls were recorded with the name Karolyn between 1912 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 167 in 1946; its best national rank was #571 in 1941.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #6,768 in 2020 to #6,435 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #6,342 in 2015 to #6,435 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.

How common is Karolyn?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 184,000
18 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 89,300
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#6,435
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
127,662 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Karolyn 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 127,662 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Karolyn. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Karolyns were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Karolyn was born before 1962 — so the typical Karolyn is around 63 today.

Median birth year
1962
About 63 years old
Biggest decade
1940s
22.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
11.6%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
3,972
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1940s — 22.7% of all recorded uses (1,355).

Is Karolyn 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
−733
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+333
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
−93
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.90×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
10.8%
Peak was 1946 (167)
Years since peak
79
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
25.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#571
1941

Spellings of Karolyn

Karolyn is not the most common spelling — Carolyn is, with 38.9% against Karolyn's 0.42%.

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 Karolyn is used

Across 1910–2025, Karolyn was most concentrated in Iowa — about 1 in 12,500 girls, against 1 in 51,372 across all states with data. It was least common in West Virginia (1 in —).

08 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Iowa1 in 12,500
  2. 2Kansas1 in 14,286
  3. 3Michigan1 in 25,000
  4. 4Nebraska1 in 25,000
  5. 5California1 in 33,333
  6. 6Oklahoma1 in 33,333
  7. 7Illinois1 in 50,000
  8. 8Minnesota1 in 50,000

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. Karolyn has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Karolyn around the world

Where Karolyn 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.

  • Scotland
    1975–1983
    #512
    in 1983
  • Ireland
    1980–1980
    #542
    in 1980
  • France
    1989–1995
    #3,905
    in 1995
  • Canada
    1993–1998
    #2,528
    in 1998
  • South Australia
    1947–2003
    #739
    in 2003

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

Notable people named Karolyn

People whose public names include Karolyn, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Karolyn in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Karolyn. Linked forms have their own page here.

CarolynCarolinaCarolineCarolyneKarolinaKarolineCarlijnKarlijnCarolienKarolínaKaroliina

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Karolyn by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#6,435
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 333
Best rank ever
#571
1941
Peak year
1946
167 that year
First recorded
1912
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,957
Count in 2025
18

Names similar to Karolyn

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

KaralynKarlynKarilynKarelynKarleighKarmenKarolinaKarterKarismaKarleyKarolineKarsynKarissaKarrieKarenaJerilynKareenaKathlynKarlieKarizmaKarelyJazzlynKarleeKarime

Names with a curve like Karolyn

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Karolyn, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

RuthannRuthanneJerilynRonnieCarlottaCarolannCharleenKarleneOraliaJerrieIlonaCharolette

Sibling names for Karolyn

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 Karolyn

Top names of 1946, Karolyn's peak yearThe 1940s in fullOther names that peaked in 1941Girls' names starting with K