Karilyn
Feminine
Karilyn joins a short form to an ending that has had two separate waves in American naming, fifty years apart — and this name belongs to the first of them, which most people have forgotten happened.
How old is the name Karilyn?
Karilyn first appears in US birth records in 1934 — 91 years ago. The typical Karilyn alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 800 people named Karilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karilyn most popular?
Karilyn peaked in 1941, reaching #2532 nationally. See the whole 1941 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Karilyn
The ending is usually treated as a modern thing, a marker of names made in the last forty years. It is not. It was already productive in the nineteen-thirties, attaching itself to short forms and producing dozens of women's names that are now thoroughly dated — and then it went quiet for a generation before coming back with a new set of fronts and being mistaken for an innovation. Two waves, the same suffix, different decades, and the names from each wave sound nothing alike because the fronts they were attached to had changed completely. An ending can be dated only in combination; on its own it has been available the whole time.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No meaning attaches. The front could be cut from Karen, Carol, Cara or a family name, and the record does not say which; the ending was a suffix by the time it was attached here and carried nothing of its own.
Pronouncing Karilyn
KAR-ih-lin
Three syllables, stress at the front. The middle syllable almost disappears in ordinary speech.
Nicknames for Karilyn
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
- 1934
- Most girls named
- 197832 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2532reached in 1941
- Change vs 2016
- −28.6%5 in 2021, from 7
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.
Karilyns among us
people named Karilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Karilyn sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is read correctly on sight with nothing difficult in it.
- It shortens two ways and both short forms stand alone.
- It is rare while being entirely familiar in sound.
- Carilyn, Karalyn and Karilynn are all possible and hers will be written as one of them.
- The name places its bearer in a particular American decade.
- There is no meaning behind either half.
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Karilyn
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karilyns 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 Karilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karilyn in 2025?
- Karilyn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karilyn with classmates?
- Karilyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karilyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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