Carin
Feminine
Carin is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 4,515 girls against 86 boys since 1880.
Carin is a Swedish spelling that America has quietly handed to boys. In Sweden it is Karen's sister — a standard women's name, spelled with a C by preference in some families and a K in others — and in the very recent American record this spelling is going mostly to sons, which is a reversal worth noticing while it is happening.
How old is the name Carin?
Carin first appears in US birth records in 1939 — 86 years ago. The typical Carin alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 4,100 people named Carin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carin most popular?
Carin peaked in 1970, reaching #799 nationally. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Katarina to Carin
The story of Carin
English reads a final -in and -on as masculine more readily than a final -en, on the model of Colin, Martin, Devin and Damon, and that appears to be what is happening here: a Scandinavian women's name whose ending American English hears as a men's one. The wave is very recent and very small, which makes it a live example of something usually only visible in hindsight. In Sweden the name remains entirely a woman's and has for a century.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Carin and Karin are Swedish contractions of Katarina, which is Katherine, whose origin has never been established — the pure reading came later and is not an etymology. So the trail ends in a question. The C rather than the K is a Swedish family preference rather than a different name, and the American use for boys appears to follow the -in ending rather than anything in the name's history.
How the name formed
- Katarina
- Karin
- Carin
Related forms: Karin · Karin · Karen
Pronouncing Carin
KAIR-in
KAIR-in, two syllables, stress at the front, in American English. Swedish says KAH-rin with a fuller first vowel and a clear r. The two readings are noticeably different and the Swedish one is the original.
Nicknames for Carin
Moderate
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
- 1939
- Most girls named
- 1970175 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #799reached in 1970
- Change vs 2014
- −25.0%6 in 2016, from 8
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.
Carin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karin in Swedish — same name
- Karin in Norwegian — same name
- Karen in Danish — related form
Carins among us
people named Carin are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Carin sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a standard Scandinavian spelling rather than an American invention.
- It is genuinely rare here, so a child carrying it will not share it.
- Two syllables, easy in any accent, and comfortable against most surnames.
- In Scandinavia this is unambiguously a woman's name, and Scandinavian readers will see it that way whatever an American form says.
- Karen and Karin are both far better known and this will be rewritten as one of them.
- The American use for boys is very recent and may not hold, which is worth knowing about a name this new.
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Carin
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Carins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,100 people named Carin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Carin in 2025?
- Carin is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Carin with classmates?
- Carin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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