Name Awesome

Karsten

#4,193 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

A Christian person, a Christian, through Carsten

Karsten has been given to 3,424 babies in the U.S. since 1950. In 2025 it ranked #4,193 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2010, with 135 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 95% boys, 5% girls all-time.

Babies named Karsten, 2025

1 in 133,000

Karsten over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Karsten over time

In 2025, Karsten went to 17% girls and 83% boys.

19502025

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Karsten: meaning, origin, and history

A Christian person, a Christian, through Carsten

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Karsten means

Karsten belongs to the name family reached through Karsten → Carsten → Christian → Chrīstiānus. Its meaning is “a Christian person, a Christian”.

Origin, language, and formation

Karsten is used in Danish, German and Norwegian.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Carsten, Christian and Chrīstiānus.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Karsten is pronounced /ˈkarstən/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 3,252 boys were recorded with the name Karsten between 1950 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 135 in 2010; its best national rank was #1,246 in 2001.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #3,864 in 2020 to #4,193 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,044 in 2015 to #4,193 in 2025.

In the United States, 172 girls were recorded with the name Karsten between 1972 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 13 in 1997; its best national rank was #7,058 in 1997.

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 Karsten?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 133,000
25 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 68,300
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#4,193
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
91,917 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Karsten sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

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 91,917 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Karsten. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Karstens were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Karsten was born before 2005 — so the typical Karsten is around 20 today.

Median birth year
2005
About 20 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
33.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
62.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
3,252
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 33.3% of all recorded uses (1,084).

Is Karsten 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
−262
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−329
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−2,149
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.36×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
18.5%
Peak was 2010 (135)
Years since peak
15
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.3% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,246
2001

Spellings of Karsten

Karsten is not the most common spelling — Karter is, with 27.5% against Karsten's 3.0%.

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 Karsten is used

Across 2016–2025, Karsten was most concentrated in Arizona — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 88,207 across all states with data. It was least common in California (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Arizona1 in 25,000
  2. 2Oklahoma1 in 25,000
  3. 3Louisiana1 in 50,000
  4. 4Minnesota1 in 50,000
  5. 5Wisconsin1 in 50,000
  6. 6Florida1 in 100,000
  7. 7Georgia1 in 100,000
  8. 8Ohio1 in 100,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys 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.

Karsten around the world

Where Karsten 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
    1999–2024
    #5,120
    in 2024
  • France
    2003–2023
    #5,459
    in 2023
  • Norway
    1880–2025
    #189
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2022
    #2,602
    in 2022
  • South Australia
    1955–1973
    #454
    in 1973

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS 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.

Notable people named Karsten

People whose public names include Karsten, 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.

Karsten in other languages

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

CarstenKarsteinKårstein

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

Karsten by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#4,193
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 329
Best rank ever
#1,246
2001
Peak year
2010
135 that year
First recorded
1950
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
3,252
Count in 2025
25

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#16,075
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
New entry
Best rank ever
#7,058
1997
Peak year
1997
13 that year
First recorded
1972
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
172
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Karsten

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

KartierKarthikKarsenKarmeloKarsynKarlosTrentenKaronCarstenKristenBraxtenKarltonQuintenKaramJustenKarimKaranKarmelloChristenKareemWestenKoltenKarloKartik

Names with a curve like Karsten

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

JermiahDevlinKalaniEvinDavenAjayBlayneAndreyJaysenAnishKaronNikita

Sibling names for Karsten

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 Karsten

Top names of 2010, Karsten's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2001Boys' names starting with K