Karan
Masculine · “one who does”
Karan is given to both — 1,512 boys and 3,450 girls since 1880. See Karan as a girl 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 1973 — 52 years ago. The typical Karan alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 1,500 people named Karan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karan most popular?
Karan peaked in 1995, reaching #1327 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 5,476 places below that high. See the whole 1995 chart.
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
- 1973
- Most boys named
- 199578 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1327reached in 1995
- Change vs 2024
- −25.0%12 in 2025, from 16
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
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Karans among us
people named Karan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Karan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Dietrich test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dietrich climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dietrich's path sketches the road Karan is walking now.
Karan 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
Karan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
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 1,500 people named Karan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karan in 2025?
- Karan ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karan?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Karan — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karan with classmates?
- Karan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karan? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karan and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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