Carina
Feminine · “keel”
Carina is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,494 girls against 35 boys since 1880.
Carina is the keel — the constellation made from the hull of the Argo, the ship Jason sailed, when astronomers broke that vast old figure into pieces in 1763.
How old is the name Carina?
Carina first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Carina alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 16,000 people named Carina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Carina most popular?
Carina peaked in 1995, reaching #382 nationally. Today it ranks #1570, 1,188 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From carina to Carina
The story of Carina
Argo Navis was the largest constellation in the old sky, and Lacaille split it in 1763 into Carina the keel, Puppis the stern and Vela the sails — the only classical constellation ever divided. Carina holds Canopus, the second-brightest star. The name is also ordinary in Italian, Spanish and Swedish, and it is in current American use.
Meaningscholars disagree
keel; dear one
Two routes. The Latin carina, 'keel of a ship', which names the constellation. Or the Italian and Spanish carina, 'dear little one', from carus, 'dear'. Both are genuine Latin words and both feed the modern name; families use whichever they intend.
How the name formed
- carina
- Carina
Related forms: Carina · Carina · Carina · Karina
Pronouncing Carina
kuh-REE-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Italian and Spanish say it the same way with a rolled r.
Nicknames for Carina
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 1996607 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #382reached in 1995
- Change vs 2023
- −14.1%134 in 2025, from 156
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.
Carina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Carina in Italian — same name
- Carina in Spanish — same name
- Carina in Swedish — same name
- Karina in German — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Carinas among us
people named Carina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 11,995 born in 2025 was named Carina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Carina
- #1570
- Carina on the 2025 chart
- #516
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Carina went to 134 girls in 2025, but Karina and Karyna are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 503, which makes it the 516th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,054 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,195 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 11,995 for Carina 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 Dee test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Carina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dee climbed just as high around 1962, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dee's path sketches the road Carina is walking now.
Carina 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
Where Carina is headed
Carina should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Carina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Carina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two genuine Latin meanings, one of them a constellation with a real story.
- It is standard in Italian, Spanish, Swedish and German with minimal change.
- Cari and Rina are two short forms with their own records.
- The origin is genuinely split between two Latin words.
- Karina and Corina are close enough to cause confusion.
- English speakers may default to a KAR- opening.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Carina
Feminine · #1570 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Carinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 16,000 people named Carina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Carina?
- Carina is one of 3 recorded spellings. Karina is the more common one — 363 births in 2025 against 134 for Carina.
- How popular is the name Carina in 2025?
- Carina ranks #1570 among US girl names in 2025, with 134 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Carina?
- About 1 in every 11,995 US girls born in 2025 was named Carina — 134 in all.
- Will my child share the name Carina with classmates?
- Carina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Carina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ester#1570 · Emberlee#1570 · Britney#1570 · Ziva#1570 · Angeline#1570 · Yitty#1570 · Kamilla#1570 · Vaeda#1570
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Carina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Carina and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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