Kareem
Masculine · Arabic roots · “generous”
Kareem is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 18,161 boys against 198 girls since 1880.
Kareem is the English spelling that stuck for the Arabic word karīm — generous, noble — a word old enough to sit in the Qur'an as one of the divine attributes. It is two syllables with the weight landing on the second, ending in a long clear vowel that carries well across a room. Familiar to nearly everyone in the US, yet rarely duplicated in a classroom.
How old is the name Kareem?
Kareem first appears in US birth records in 1964 — 61 years ago. The typical Kareem alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 17,500 people named Kareem are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kareem most popular?
Kareem peaked in 1977, reaching #367 nationally. Today it ranks #701, 334 places below that high. See the whole 1977 chart.
Kareem appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From karīm (Arabic adjective: generous, noble) to Kareem
The story of Kareem
The root k-r-m runs through Arabic in words for generosity, honor and hospitality, and karīm is its adjective: one who gives freely, one of noble birth. Because it belongs to the vocabulary of the Qur'an, it traveled wherever Arabic did — into Persian, Turkish, Urdu, Malay, the Balkans, West Africa — usually written Karim or Kerim in those languages. English-language records favor the doubled-e spelling, Kareem, which fixes the long second vowel for readers who do not know Arabic. Both spellings are the same name; only the alphabet changed hands.
Meaning
generous, noble
From Arabic كريم (karīm). Al-Karīm, "the Most Generous," is among the names of God in Islam, and the compound Abd al-Karīm — "servant of the Most Generous" — has been in use for centuries.
How the name formed
- karīmArabic adjective: generous, noble
- Karim
- Kerim
- Kareem
Related forms: كريم (Karim) · Kerim · Karim · Karim · Kerim · Karim
Pronouncing Kareem
kuh-REEM
Stress the second syllable. In Arabic the first vowel is fuller — ka-REEM — and some English speakers flatten it to KAR-eem, which is worth correcting early if it matters to you.
Nicknames for Kareem
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
- 1964
- Most boys named
- 1980459 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #367reached in 1977
- Change vs 2024
- −5.4%383 in 2025, from 405
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.
Kareem in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- كريم (Karim) in Arabic — transliteration
- Kerim in Turkish — same name
- Karim in Persian — same name
- Karim in Urdu — same name
- Kerim in Bosnian — same name
- Karim in French — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Kareems among us
people named Kareem are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 4,460 born in 2025 was named Kareem
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 Gail test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kareem's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Gail climbed just as high around 1936, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Gail's path sketches the road Kareem is walking now.
Kareem 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
Where Kareem is headed
Kareem should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kareem beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kareem in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An ordinary Arabic word with a documented meaning — generous, noble — that a parent can state plainly rather than hedge.
- Works in Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Urdu, Malay and Bosnian without translation, and is recognizable in most of Europe as Karim.
- Short, two syllables, no silent letters, and pronounceable on sight by English speakers.
- Held its ground on US records across several decades without ever becoming a classroom repeat.
- Kareem and Karim are the same name in two spellings, and people will guess wrong. Expect a lifetime of gentle corrections on forms and in email — not a problem, just a small recurring one.
- The name reads clearly as Arabic and, to many Americans, as Muslim. For some families that recognition is exactly the point; it is worth deciding on purpose rather than by accident.
- English speakers sometimes shift the stress to the first syllable. Saying it once, clearly, usually settles it.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Kareem
Masculine · Arabic roots · #701 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kareems are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 17,500 people named Kareem are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kareem in 2025?
- Kareem ranks #701 among US boy names in 2025, with 383 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kareem?
- About 1 in every 4,460 US boys born in 2025 was named Kareem — 383 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kareem with classmates?
- Kareem will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kareem
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Bridger#701 · Jayson#700 · Ryland#703 · Bryer#703 · Marvin#699 · Ahmed#703 · Robin#703 · Evander#698
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kareem? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kareem and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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