Karima
Feminine · “Arabic "generous”
Generosity was the supreme virtue of pre-Islamic Arabia, and karam is its name. The proverbial example is Hatim al-Tai, who is said to have slaughtered his own horse to feed a guest he could not otherwise honor — the standard the word still carries.
How old is the name Karima?
Karima first appears in US birth records in 1967 — 58 years ago. The typical Karima alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 1,400 people named Karima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karima most popular?
Karima peaked in 1976, reaching #1638 nationally. Today it ranks #7491, 5,853 places below that high. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From k-r-m to Karima
The story of Karima
Bedouin ethics placed hospitality at the center, and for practical reasons: in a desert, a traveler turned away might die, so the obligation to feed and shelter a guest for three days was absolute and reciprocal. Poetry made it a competitive virtue, with poets praising patrons for ruinous generosity as the highest compliment available. Hatim al-Tai, a sixth-century poet and chieftain, became the standing example and appears in Arabic, Persian and Urdu literature for the next fourteen centuries as the measure against which giving is judged. Islam absorbed the value rather than replacing it, and Al-Karim, the Generous, is among the divine names. The American figures for Karima peak in 1976.
Meaning
Arabic "generous, noble"
From the root k-r-m, generosity and nobility, giving karīm, generous, and its feminine karīma. The same root gives karam, generosity as a virtue, and ikrām, honoring a guest. In Arabic the two senses — generous and noble — are not separable; a noble person is one who gives. Karima, Kareema and Karimah are transliterations of the same word.
How the name formed
- k-r-m
- karīma
- Karima
Related forms: كريمة · Kerime · Kareema
Pronouncing Karima
kah-REE-mah
Three syllables, stress on the second, with a long ee. English speakers sometimes say kuh-RIM-uh, shortening the stressed vowel, which changes the word.
Nicknames for Karima
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
- 1967
- Most girls named
- 197660 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1638reached in 1976
- Change vs 2024
- +40.0%14 in 2025, from 10
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.
Karima in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- كريمة in Arabic — transliteration
- Kerime in Turkish — same name
- Kareema in English — spelling variant
Karimas among us
people named Karima are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 114,805 born in 2025 was named Karima
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 Lynna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karima's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lynna climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lynna's path sketches the road Karima is walking now.
Karima 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
Karima beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karima in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and central to a documented ethical tradition.
- Kari and Rima are ready short forms with independent lives.
- It is used across the entire Arab world and beyond.
- Kareema and Karimah are competing transliterations.
- English speakers shorten the stressed vowel.
- It is rare enough in the United States to need spelling out.
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What they receive
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Karima
Feminine · #7491 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karimas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Karima are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karima in 2025?
- Karima ranks #7491 among US girl names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karima?
- About 1 in every 114,805 US girls born in 2025 was named Karima — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karima with classmates?
- Karima will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karima
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Christie#7491 · Carmelita#7491 · Jetta#7491 · Hildegard#7491 · Rickie#7491 · Billy#7491 · Angelyn#7491 · Jewell#7491
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karima? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karima and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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