Karishma
Feminine · “Persian karishma”
Karishma means miracle in Hindi and Urdu, and it got there from Persian, where the older sense was a coquettish gesture, a glance or a charm. The word traveled from flirtation to wonder, which is a shorter distance than it sounds.
How old is the name Karishma?
Karishma first appears in US birth records in 1981 — 44 years ago. The typical Karishma alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 1,100 people named Karishma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karishma most popular?
Karishma peaked in 1994, reaching #2381 nationally. Today it ranks #9457, 7,076 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karishma to Karishma
The story of Karishma
Persian supplied Hindi and Urdu with a very large vocabulary of administration, poetry and courtly life over some seven hundred years, and Karishma belongs to the poetic layer. In classical Persian ghazal, karishma names the studied gesture of the beloved, the glance or turn of the head that captures the lover, and it sits with a set of related terms, naz, ada, ishwa, that describe kinds of graceful coquetry with precision English cannot match in single words. The shift from that to marvel is a shift from the effect to the cause: something that produces astonishment. The Greek charisma, a gift of grace, arrived in English by a completely separate route through the New Testament and Max Weber's sociology, and the resemblance between the two words is a coincidence of sound.
Meaning
Persian karishma, a wonder or a charm
Karishma is a Persian loanword in Hindi and Urdu meaning a miracle, marvel or wonder. In Persian the older senses include a graceful or coquettish gesture and an air of charm, and the shift to marvel happened in Indo-Persian usage. It is unrelated to the Greek charisma, which reached English separately. The American peak is 1994.
How the name formed
- karishma
- Karishma
Related forms: Karishma · Karishma · Karisma
Pronouncing Karishma
kuh-RISH-mah
Three syllables, stress on the second. Karishma and Karisma are both used; the h marks an aspirated consonant in Indian transliteration.
Nicknames for Karishma
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
- 1981
- Most girls named
- 199454 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2381reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- −23.1%10 in 2025, from 13
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.
Karishma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karishma in Hindi — same name
- Karishma in Urdu — same name
- Karisma in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida.
Karishmas among us
people named Karishma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 160,727 born in 2025 was named Karishma
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 Katrin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karishma's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Katrin climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Katrin's path sketches the road Karishma is walking now.
Karishma 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
Karishma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karishma 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 a single clear and striking word.
- Kari works as a short form.
- Three syllables with clear middle stress.
- It is easily confused with the English word charisma, which is unrelated.
- Karisma without the h is an equally common spelling.
- It is closely identified with one Indian film star.
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What they receive
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Karishma
Feminine · #9457 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karishmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Karishma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karishma in 2025?
- Karishma ranks #9457 among US girl names in 2025, with 10 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karishma?
- About 1 in every 160,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Karishma — 10 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karishma with classmates?
- Karishma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karishma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Leta#9457 · Inga#9457 · Delphia#9457 · Cammie#9457 · Lisandra#9457 · Amee#9457 · Venecia#9457 · Annetta#9457
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karishma? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karishma and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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