Karalynn
Feminine · “dear”
Latin carus means dear, and English is quietly full of it. Caress is to treat as dear. Cherish is the same. Charity is caritas, dearness — which is why the older Bibles use charity where modern ones use love. One small adjective underneath three words that do not look related.
How old is the name Karalynn?
Karalynn first appears in US birth records in 1963 — 62 years ago. The typical Karalynn alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Karalynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karalynn most popular?
Karalynn peaked in 2010, reaching #3745 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 8,187 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From carus to Karalynn
The story of Karalynn
Carus went into Italian as caro and cara, still the ordinary words for dear, and into French as cher. Its abstract noun, caritas, was the word Latin Bibles used for the highest of the three theological virtues, which English translated as charity — so the King James verse says faith, hope and charity where later versions say love, and both are translating the same Latin word about holding something dear. Caress and cherish come the same way. There is a quite separate Kara that has nothing to do with any of it: Turkish kara means black, and it is all over the map — the Black Sea is the Kara Deniz, and Karakorum is black gravel.
Meaningscholars disagree
dear, joined to a lake
Kara has several possible sources: Italian cara and Latin carus, dear; Irish cara, a friend; Turkish kara, black; and a Norse valkyrie name. The -lynn ending is the American suffix from Welsh llyn, a lake, and carries no meaning. The compound has none of its own.
How the name formed
- carus
- cara
- Kara
- Karalynn
Related forms: Cara · Cara
Pronouncing Karalynn
KAR-uh-lin
Three syllables, stress on the first. KAIR-uh-lin, with the vowel of care, is also used and depends entirely on how the family says Kara.
Nicknames for Karalynn
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
- 1963
- Most girls named
- 201041 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3745reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- −30.0%7 in 2025, from 10
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.
Karalynn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cara in Italian — related form
- Cara in Irish — related form
Karalynns among us
people named Karalynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Karalynn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Karalynn
- #11932
- Karalynn on the 2025 chart
- #936
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Karalynn went to 7 girls in 2025, but Karalyn and Caralyn are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 24, which makes it the 936th most-given girls’ name of the year — 10,996 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Karalynn 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 Chrysta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karalynn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Chrysta climbed just as high around 1987, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Chrysta's path sketches the road Karalynn is walking now.
Karalynn 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
Karalynn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karalynn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of its possible roots is a documented Latin word with three English descendants.
- Three short forms, all of which are full names elsewhere.
- Three syllables with a clear falling rhythm.
- Karalyn, Caralynn and Karolyn are all in use, so the spelling will be given every time.
- The first vowel is said two ways and the spelling settles neither.
- Only the front half has a possible meaning, and it has four of them.
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Karalynn
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karalynns 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 Karalynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Karalynn?
- Karalynn is one of 3 recorded spellings. Karalyn is the more common one — 11 births in 2025 against 7 for Karalynn.
- How popular is the name Karalynn in 2025?
- Karalynn ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karalynn?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Karalynn — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karalynn with classmates?
- Karalynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karalynn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karalynn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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