Karon
Feminine
Karon is given to both — 6,208 girls and 3,198 boys since 1880. See Karon as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Karon is a women's name that crossed over. Karen is Danish, a worn-down Katherine, and it went almost entirely to daughters in twentieth-century America; changing the final vowel to an o moved it, and this spelling now goes mostly to boys. That is an unusual direction of travel — names generally move the other way.
How old is the name Karon?
Karon first appears in US birth records in 1933 — 92 years ago. The typical Karon alive today was born around 1955, making them about 70 years old. About 4,900 people named Karon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karon most popular?
Karon peaked in 1948, reaching #503 nationally. See the whole 1948 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Katherine to Karon
The story of Karon
Names almost always travel from boys to girls and almost never back, so a case running the other way is worth noticing. What appears to have happened here is that the -on ending did the work: English reads a final -on as masculine in a way it does not read a final -en, on the model of Damon, Jaron and Marlon. So one vowel moved a Danish women's name across the line, and the spelling now carries a sex the name it came from does not. The record shows it concentrated in particular regions, which is how a local convention usually looks.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Karen is a Danish contraction of Katherine, and Katherine's own origin has never been established — the pure reading was applied by later Christian writers and is not an etymology. So the trail ends in a question. The o in this spelling is an American substitution and carries nothing. The Greek Charon, the ferryman of the dead, is a different word with a different opening consonant, and the resemblance is a coincidence rather than a source.
How the name formed
- Katherine
- Karen
- Karon
Related forms: Karen
Pronouncing Karon
KAIR-un
KAIR-un, two syllables, stress at the front. Karen and Karon are said identically in most American accents, since the final vowel is reduced either way — so the sex signal the o carries is entirely visual.
Nicknames for Karon
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
- 1933
- Most girls named
- 1956244 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #503reached in 1948
- Change vs 2006
- −16.7%5 in 2008, from 6
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.
Karon in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karen in Danish — related form
Karons among us
people named Karon 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
Karon 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
- Ron is available as a short form and is a complete name of its own.
- The -on ending reads clearly as a men's name, which is what it was chosen for.
- Two syllables, easy in any accent, and comfortable against most surnames.
- It is said identically to Karen, so on the telephone the name gives no signal at all.
- Karen is very much better known and the spelling will be corrected toward it constantly.
- It shares its sound with a name that has acquired a difficult general meaning in recent American usage.
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Karon
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Karons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,900 people named Karon are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Karon in 2025?
- Karon is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Karon with classmates?
- Karon 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 Karon? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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