Karaline
Feminine · “Germanic "free man”
The word behind Charles rose in one language and sank in another. Germanic karl meant a free man of the lowest rank; in Frankish it became the name of emperors, and in English the same word became churl, which now means a boor. One root, two opposite destinies.
How old is the name Karaline?
Karaline first appears in US birth records in 1975 — 50 years ago. The typical Karaline alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 800 people named Karaline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karaline most popular?
Karaline peaked in 2014, reaching #3778 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 3,713 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karl to Karaline
The story of Karaline
Charlemagne's name was so closely associated with kingship that it became the word for king in several Slavic languages: Polish król, Czech král, Russian korol. The same word in English went the other way. Old English ceorl named a free peasant with land and standing, a real rank in Anglo-Saxon law; after the Conquest the Norman aristocracy used it for anyone beneath them, and by the sixteenth century churlish meant rude. So one Germanic word simultaneously produced the Slavic word for king, the French name of emperors, and the English word for an ill-mannered man. Karaline peaks in America in 2014.
Meaning
Germanic "free man"
From Old High German karl, a man of the common free class, as against a noble or a slave. The Frankish ruler Charlemagne — Carolus Magnus — made the word a royal name, and it became Charles in French and Carolus in Latin, giving Caroline as a feminine of Carolus. The English cognate ceorl gave churl, which sank in status through the Middle Ages. Karaline is an American respelling of Caroline.
How the name formed
- karl
- Carolus
- Caroline
- Karaline
Related forms: Caroline · Karoline · Carolina · Caroline
Pronouncing Karaline
KAR-uh-line
Three syllables, stress on the first, with the ending said as a long i. Some families say KAR-uh-leen with a long ee, following the German Karoline; both are in use.
Nicknames for Karaline
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
- 1975
- Most girls named
- 201440 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3778reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +133.3%14 in 2025, from 6
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.
Karaline in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caroline in English — spelling variant
- Karoline in German — same name
- Carolina in Italian — same name
- Caroline in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Karalines among us
people named Karaline are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Karaline
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Karaline
- #7491
- Karaline on the 2025 chart
- #931
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Karaline went to 14 girls in 2025, but Caraline 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 — 6,560 places above the chart.
- Caraline15
- Karaline14
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 114,805 for Karaline 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 Janny test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karaline's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Janny climbed just as high around 1955, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Janny's path sketches the road Karaline is walking now.
Karaline 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
Karaline beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karaline in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and the word's history is unusually well documented.
- Kara, Lina and Callie are all ready short forms.
- The K spelling connects it to the German and Scandinavian forms.
- Caroline is the standard English spelling and will be substituted.
- The final syllable is pronounced two different ways.
- It is easily confused with Karolina and Carolyn in writing.
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What they receive
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Karaline
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karalines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Karaline are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Karaline?
- Karaline is one of 2 recorded spellings. Caraline is the more common one — 15 births in 2025 against 14 for Karaline.
- How popular is the name Karaline in 2025?
- Karaline ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karaline?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Karaline — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karaline with classmates?
- Karaline will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karaline
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karaline? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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