Caraline
Feminine · “Germanic "free man”
Caraline is Caroline reanalysed. The middle vowel of Caroline is unstressed and therefore reduced to nothing in speech, which means it can be written o, a or e without changing the sound — and once it is written a, the name appears to begin with Cara, a real name that has nothing to do with it.
How old is the name Caraline?
Caraline first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Caraline alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 1,100 people named Caraline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Caraline most popular?
Caraline peaked in 2011, reaching #3051 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 4,082 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Where it comes from
From karl to Caraline
The story of Caraline
The unstressed vowel is the least stable thing in an English name, and Caroline has been written Carolina, Caraline, Carralina and Karoline in American records for two centuries. What is modern is doing it deliberately. Cara became a familiar American name from the 1970s, and once it existed, the a spelling of Caroline stopped looking like a clerk's error and started looking like a choice — a name that contains another name. Caraline peaked in 2011, in the middle of Caroline's own long revival.
Meaning
Germanic "free man", by way of Charles
Caroline is the English form of Italian Carolina, the feminine of Carolus, the Latin form of Charles — from Germanic karl, a free man or a peasant. The etymology is settled for the whole family: Charles, Carl, Karl, Charlotte, Carla, Caroline. Italian cara, "dear", which the respelling seems to invoke, is a different word entirely and is not the source.
How the name formed
- karl
- Carolus
- Carolina
- Caroline
- Caraline
Related forms: Caroline · Carolina · Karoline · Caroline
Pronouncing Caraline
KAR-uh-line
Three syllables with the stress on the first and the middle vowel fully reduced. Identical to Caroline. The final syllable rhymes with line in American English and with lean in some British and Scandinavian usage.
Nicknames for Caraline
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 201155 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3051reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%15 in 2025, from 20
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Caraline in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caroline in English — spelling variant
- Carolina in Italian — related form
- Karoline in German — related form
- Caroline in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, Kentucky.
Caralines among us
people named Caraline are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Caraline
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Caraline
- #7133
- Caraline on the 2025 chart
- #931
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Caraline went to 15 girls in 2025, but Karaline is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 29, which makes it the 931st most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,202 places above the chart.
- Caraline15
- Karaline14
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 107,151 for Caraline itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Rianne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Caraline's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rianne climbed just as high around 1993, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rianne's path sketches the road Caraline is walking now.
Caraline sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Caraline beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Caraline in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a settled Germanic etymology through one of Europe's great royal names.
- The a spelling makes Cara available as a short form.
- It sounds entirely classic while looking uncommon.
- Caroline is far more common and will be written by default.
- The Cara reading is a reanalysis, not a derivation.
- Caraline, Caroline, Carolyn and Karoline all coexist.
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What they receive
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Caraline
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Caralines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Caraline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Caraline?
- Caraline is the most-used spelling in US records — 15 of the 29 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Karaline.
- How popular is the name Caraline in 2025?
- Caraline ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Caraline?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Caraline — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Caraline with classmates?
- Caraline will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Caraline
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Caraline? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Caraline and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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