Karan
Feminine · “one who does”
Karan is given to both — 3,450 girls and 1,512 boys since 1880. See Karan as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Karan is two names sharing a spelling. In India it is a man's name from the Mahabharata, borne by one of the most sympathetic figures in the epic; in America it is also a way of writing Karen. Both are in the record, and the same five letters serve them.
How old is the name Karan?
Karan first appears in US birth records in 1936 — 89 years ago. The typical Karan alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 2,800 people named Karan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karan most popular?
Karan peaked in 1956, reaching #746 nationally. See the whole 1956 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Karna to Karan
The story of Karan
Karna in the Mahabharata is born to an unmarried princess, set adrift on a river, raised by a charioteer, and spends his life being told he is not good enough for the things he is plainly best at. He fights on the losing side out of loyalty to the one man who treated him as an equal, and is killed by his own younger brother, who does not know the relation until afterwards. He is the character Indian readers argue about most. The name is ordinary in India today and traveled to America with Indian families in the later twentieth century, where it landed on a spelling that American parents had already been using for daughters.
Meaningscholars disagree
one who does, or pure
The Sanskrit name is read either as a form of the word for doing or acting, or as a name of its own in the epic tradition. The American Karan, being a respelling of a Danish short form of Katherine, carries an entirely different sense and is not related.
How the name formed
- Karna
- Karan
Related forms: Karan · Karna · Karan
Pronouncing Karan
KUR-un
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Hindi gives both syllables more equal value, KUH-run, and the American reading as Karen puts a longer vowel in front.
Nicknames for Karan
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
- 1936
- Most girls named
- 1957164 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #746reached in 1956
- Change vs 2003
- +50.0%9 in 2004, 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.
Karan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karan in Hindi — same name
- Karna in Sanskrit — transliteration
- Karan in Punjabi — same name
Karans among us
people named Karan 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
Karan 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 an ordinary current name across northern India, not a revival or a coinage.
- Five letters, two syllables, and no sound difficult for an English speaker.
- The epic figure behind it is one of the best known in Indian literature.
- American readers will see Karen and assume a woman's name, which the record supports on that side.
- The two names behind this spelling have nothing to do with each other, and neither one explains the other.
- The stress is placed differently by Indian and American speakers.
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What they receive
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Karan
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,800 people named Karan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karan in 2025?
- Karan is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karan with classmates?
- Karan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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