Caron
Feminine · “loving”
Caron is given to both — 3,179 girls and 1,033 boys since 1880. See Caron as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Caru is the Welsh verb to love, and caron is built on it. There is a village called Tregaron in Ceredigion and a saint behind the name, and the word is still ordinary Welsh — cariad, darling, comes from the same root and is what Welsh speakers actually call each other.
How old is the name Caron?
Caron first appears in US birth records in 1937 — 88 years ago. The typical Caron alive today was born around 1961, making them about 64 years old. About 2,700 people named Caron are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Caron most popular?
Caron peaked in 1956, reaching #742 nationally. See the whole 1956 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From caru to Caron
The story of Caron
Welsh built a small stock of names on ordinary affectionate words and kept using them: caru gives Caron and Carys, and cariad is the everyday word for love and for a loved person, said in shops and on doorsteps. There is a homophone worth mentioning and dismissing. Charon was the ferryman of the Greek underworld, and the coin placed in a dead person's mouth to pay him is not only a literary detail: archaeologists find coins in the mouths of Greek and Roman burials regularly enough that the practice is clearly real. The two names are unconnected, one Welsh and one Greek, and only English spelling brings them close.
Meaningscholars disagree
loving
Welsh caron is connected with caru, to love, and with the saint's name behind Tregaron. A French surname Caron, from a word for a cart, is a separate source for some bearers. Neither has been demonstrated for the American given name.
How the name formed
- caru
- Caron
Related forms: Caron · Caron
Pronouncing Caron
KAR-un
Two syllables, stress on the first, in Welsh and in American use. kuh-RON, with the weight at the end, is also used and follows the French pattern.
Nicknames for Caron
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
- 1937
- Most girls named
- 1956171 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #742reached in 1956
- Change vs 2002
- −12.5%7 in 2004, 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.
Caron in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caron in Welsh — same name
- Caron in French — related form
Carons among us
people named Caron 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
Caron 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
- A settled Welsh root that is still an everyday word in the language.
- It serves either child, and the records show both.
- Two syllables with nothing hard to say.
- Karen, Caron and Carron are all in use and close enough to be confused.
- The stress is genuinely unsettled between the two syllables.
- The very few girls given this spelling will be read as boys on every form.
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Caron
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Carons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,700 people named Caron are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Caron in 2025?
- Caron is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Caron with classmates?
- Caron 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 Caron? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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