Kari
Masculine · “gust of wind”
Kari is given to girls far more often — 59,696 girls against 931 boys since 1880. See Kari as a girl name
Kári is Old Norse for a gust of wind, and in the mythology he is one of the three brothers who are wind, fire and sea.
How old is the name Kari?
Kari first appears in US birth records in 1956 — 69 years ago. The typical Kari alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 900 people named Kari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kari most popular?
Kari peaked in 1970, reaching #1847 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 2,549 places below that high. See the whole 1970 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Kari
Late Icelandic sources give three brothers — Kári the wind, Logi the fire and Ægir the sea — sons of a giant, and the arrangement is neat enough that it may be a later systematisation. Kári Sölmundarson is also a major figure in Njáls saga. Finnish Kari is separate, from Karl. In American records Kari is overwhelmingly a women's name and its men's use is small and Scandinavian.
Meaningscholars disagree
gust of wind
Old Norse Kári names a wind or a gust and appears as a personification in the myths. Separately Finnish Kari is a form of Karl and a word for a skerry, and the modern American Kari is usually a women's form of Karen. All three are documented.
Pronouncing Kari
KAH-ree
Two syllables, first stressed. Norse gives the same shape.
Nicknames for Kari
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
- 1956
- Most boys named
- 202445 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1847reached in 1970
- Change vs 2024
- −48.9%23 in 2025, from 45
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.
Kari in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kári in Icelandic — same name
- Kari in Finnish — related form
- Kåre in Norwegian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Georgia, Ohio, Texas.
Karis among us
people named Kari are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Kari
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kari
- #4396
- Kari on the 2025 chart
- #746
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kari went to 23 boys in 2025, but Khari, Cary and Cari and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 183, which makes it the 746th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,650 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 9,334 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 74,264 for Kari 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 Eleuterio test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kari's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Eleuterio climbed just as high around 1926, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Eleuterio's path sketches the road Kari is walking now.
Kari 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
Kari beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kari in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Norse meaning with a genuinely vivid mythological role.
- Four letters and two syllables, about as easy to write as a name gets.
- A major saga figure carries it.
- In America it is overwhelmingly a women's name and he will correct assumptions.
- Kari, Kari and Karri are all in use and mark different traditions.
- The Finnish and Norse uses are unrelated to one another.
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Kari
Masculine · #4396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Kari are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kari?
- Kari is one of 6 recorded spellings. Khari is the more common one — 113 births in 2025 against 23 for Kari.
- How popular is the name Kari in 2025?
- Kari ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kari?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Kari — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kari with classmates?
- Kari will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kari
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Manu#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kari? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kari and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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