Kareema
Feminine · “generous”
Kareema writes out a long vowel that the usual spelling only implies. Arabic karima is built on a root about generosity, and the ee in the middle of this version is doing exactly what the Arabic vowel does — holding the syllable open. It is one of the more useful respellings in American naming, because it tells an English reader where the weight goes.
How old is the name Kareema?
Kareema first appears in US birth records in 1972 — 53 years ago. The typical Kareema alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 800 people named Kareema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kareema most popular?
Kareema peaked in 1984, reaching #2677 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 12,265 places below that high. See the whole 1984 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karim to Kareema
The story of Kareema
Arabic naming draws heavily on the divine attributes, either directly or through their human equivalents, and karim sits among the most-used of them. The name traveled with the language across North Africa, the Levant, South Asia and, later, the United States, picking up local spellings at every stop. American English has no settled system for writing Arabic vowels, so the same name arrives as Karima, Kareema, Kerima and Karimah depending on who wrote it down and what they were listening for. This version chose the double e, which is the clearest English signal for a long vowel and the least ambiguous of the options.
Meaning
generous; noble
Arabic karim means generous, noble or honorable, and karima is its feminine. The root k-r-m runs through a family of words about giving freely and about worth, including karam, generosity, and the honorific title kareem. Al-Karim, the Generous, is one of the ninety-nine names of God in Islam, which gives the word a standing that ordinary adjectives do not have. The meaning is not disputed anywhere the language is spoken.
How the name formed
- karim
- Karima
- Kareema
Related forms: كريمة · Kerime · Karima · Kerima
Pronouncing Kareema
kuh-REE-muh
kuh-REE-muh, three syllables, stress on the second, exactly as the spelling promises. Arabic gives the r a light tap and the final vowel a slightly fuller sound, but the shape is the same. This is one of the rare cases where the American respelling is more accurate than the standard one.
Nicknames for Kareema
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
- 1972
- Most girls named
- 198434 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2677reached in 1984
- Change vs 2019
- −16.7%5 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.
Kareema in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- كريمة in Arabic — transliteration
- Kerime in Turkish — same name
- Karima in Urdu — same name
- Kerima in Bosnian — same name
Kareemas among us
people named Kareema are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Kareema
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kareema
- #14942
- Kareema on the 2025 chart
- #949
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kareema went to 5 girls in 2025, but Kareemah is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 11, which makes it the 949th most-given girls’ name of the year — 13,993 places above the chart.
- Kareemah6
- Kareema5
About 1 girl in 146,115 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 321,453 for Kareema 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 Sheela test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kareema's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sheela climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sheela's path sketches the road Kareema is walking now.
Kareema 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
Kareema beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kareema in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The double e places the stress correctly for an English reader, which Karima does not.
- It is a working name across the Arab world, Turkey, South Asia and the Balkans without translation.
- The meaning is short, settled and genuinely pleasant to explain.
- Karima is the more standard transliteration, and this spelling will be corrected toward it by anyone who reads Arabic.
- The name has at least four common English spellings, so it gets dictated letter by letter.
- Kareem is very well known as a man's name in America, and the resemblance is close enough that the connection gets remarked on.
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Kareema
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kareemas 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 Kareema are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kareema?
- Kareema is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kareemah is the more common one — 6 births in 2025 against 5 for Kareema.
- How popular is the name Kareema in 2025?
- Kareema ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kareema?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Kareema — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kareema with classmates?
- Kareema will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kareema
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hester#14942 · Lyda#14942 · Zula#14942 · Zona#14942 · Ula#14942 · Belva#14942 · Lucetta#14942 · Leala#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kareema? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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