Karin
Feminine · “pure”
Karin is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 28,532 girls against 199 boys since 1880.
Karin is the Swedish form of Katherine, and Sweden has used it continuously for seven hundred years — long enough that it feels like a native name rather than a Greek import.
How old is the name Karin?
Karin first appears in US birth records in 1907 — 118 years ago. The typical Karin alive today was born around 1966, making them about 59 years old. About 24,500 people named Karin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karin most popular?
Karin peaked in 1967, reaching #275 nationally. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Karin
The story of Karin
Katarina reached Sweden through the medieval church and was shortened to Karin in ordinary use, where it became one of the country's staple women's names — Karin, Kajsa and Katarina all coexist there. Swedish and German emigration brought it to America, and it rose independently in the 1960s and 1970s when Scandinavian names were fashionable, peaking in the mid-1960s.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure
Through Katherine, whose received meaning is the Greek katharos, 'pure'. That reading came later than the name: the earliest form, Aikaterine, is not explained by katharos, and the spelling drifted toward it under the influence of the saint's legend. The original sense is not recovered.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katarina
- Karin
Related forms: Karin · Karin · Karin · Karen
Pronouncing Karin
KAH-rin
Two syllables, stress on the first. Swedish gives the first vowel a purer quality; American speakers often say it identically to Karen.
Nicknames for Karin
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
- 1907
- Most girls named
- 19691,009 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #275reached in 1967
- Change vs 2022
- −13.3%13 in 2024, from 15
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.
Karin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karin in Swedish — same name
- Karin in German — same name
- Karin in Norwegian — same name
- Karen in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California.
Karins among us
people named Karin 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
Karin has already lived its whole cycle: it rose, had its era, and has stepped off the charts. The fashion question is behind it — what lies ahead is the waiting room where revivals begin, once a name's first generation has grown distant enough for it to sound fresh again.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- A genuine Scandinavian name with a seven-hundred-year record, not an American respelling.
- It is spelled identically in Swedish, German and Norwegian.
- It sits inside one of the largest name families in Europe.
- Karen is far commoner in American records and the two are easily confused.
- The meaning of the parent name is not actually recovered.
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What they receive
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Karin
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 24,500 people named Karin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karin in 2025?
- Karin is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karin with classmates?
- Karin 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 Karin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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