Karena
Feminine · “Greek "pure”
Karena is a shortened name made long again. Karen is a Danish clipping of Katherine — the Scandinavians cut Katrine down to Karen centuries ago — and adding -a rebuilds it into a three-syllable name that looks like it might be the original. The name has traveled in a circle.
How old is the name Karena?
Karena first appears in US birth records in 1946 — 79 years ago. The typical Karena alive today was born around 1988, making them about 37 years old. About 3,400 people named Karena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karena most popular?
Karena peaked in 1974, reaching #1042 nationally. Today it ranks #7133, 6,091 places below that high. See the whole 1974 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Karena
The story of Karena
Denmark clipped Katherine to Karen; Norway and Sweden did the same; and the name crossed to America with Scandinavian immigration, becoming one of the largest American girls' names of the 1950s and 1960s. Lengthening it back with an -a is a distinctly American move, made once the short form was too common to feel distinctive: Karena, Karina and Karyn all appear as Karen falls. Karena peaked in 1974, a decade after Karen's own peak, which is the usual lag.
Meaning
Greek "pure", by way of Katherine
Karen is the Danish form of Katrine, from Katharina, from Greek Aikaterine. The Greek name's own origin is obscure and the purity reading is a Christian-era reinterpretation, but it is what the whole family has carried for a thousand years. Karena is a lengthened form of Karen and inherits the same chain. It is unrelated to the Karen people of Myanmar, whose name is a coincidence in English.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katharina
- Katrine
- Karen
- Karena
Related forms: Karen · Karin · Carina · Kaisa
Pronouncing Karena
kuh-REE-nuh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Some speakers say kuh-REN-uh, keeping Karen's short vowel, and both are heard. The spelling does not settle it.
Nicknames for Karena
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
- 1946
- Most girls named
- 1974114 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1042reached in 1974
- Change vs 2024
- +25.0%15 in 2025, from 12
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.
Karena in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karen in Danish — related form
- Karin in Norwegian — related form
- Carina in Italian — related form
- Kaisa in Finnish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Karenas among us
people named Karena are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 107,151 born in 2025 was named Karena
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Karena
- #7133
- Karena on the 2025 chart
- #930
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Karena went to 15 girls in 2025, but Kareena is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 30, which makes it the 930th most-given girls’ name of the year — 6,203 places above the chart.
- Kareena15
- Karena15
About 1 girl in 53,576 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 107,151 for Karena 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 Candelaria test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karena's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Candelaria climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Candelaria's path sketches the road Karena is walking now.
Karena 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
Karena beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karena in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It connects to the enormous Katherine family through a genuine Danish form.
- Rena and Kari are both established short forms.
- It is longer and more formal than Karen while staying recognizable.
- The middle vowel has two readings, EE and short E.
- Karena, Karina, Corina and Kareena will all be confused.
- The 1974 peak dates it to a specific decade.
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What they receive
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Karena
Feminine · #7133 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karenas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,400 people named Karena are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Karena?
- Karena is one of 2 recorded spellings. Kareena is the more common one — 15 births in 2025 against 15 for Karena.
- How popular is the name Karena in 2025?
- Karena ranks #7133 among US girl names in 2025, with 15 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karena?
- About 1 in every 107,151 US girls born in 2025 was named Karena — 15 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karena with classmates?
- Karena will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karena
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Pennie#7133 · Zina#7133 · Elzie#7133 · Rosabel#7133 · Adelene#7133 · Cruz#7133 · Kansas#7133 · Ione#7133
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karena? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karena and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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