Karyna
Feminine · “dear one”
Karina has two respectable parents and no way of telling which one it belongs to. It may be the Latin cara, dear, with a Slavic ending; it may be a form of Katherine that went east instead of north. Both are widely believed in the countries that use the name, and neither can be demonstrated. Karyna is the spelling that Ukrainian and Polish-influenced American families reach for.
How old is the name Karyna?
Karyna first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Karyna alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 800 people named Karyna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Karyna most popular?
Karyna peaked in 1997, reaching #2874 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 10,334 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From cara to Karyna
The story of Karyna
Karina became widely used across Eastern Europe in the twentieth century and is now entirely ordinary in Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states. It reached America through those communities and, separately, through Scandinavian and Spanish-speaking ones, since the name exists in both. The y-spelling belongs to the Slavic route: Ukrainian and Polish transliteration into English uses y where Russian romanization often uses i, and the letter travels with the family.
Meaningscholars disagree
dear one, or a form of Katherine
The Latin cara, dear, gives Cara and Carina and is the usual explanation in Italian and Spanish contexts. In Russian, Ukrainian and Polish use, the name is more often understood as a form of Katerina. There is also an Italian carina, a diminutive meaning little dear one, and a constellation called Carina, the keel of a ship. None of these can be assigned to a particular family.
How the name formed
- cara
- Carina
- Karina
- Karyna
Related forms: Karyna · Karina · Karina · Carina · Carina
Pronouncing Karyna
kah-REE-nah
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Ukrainian and Russian say it the same way. English speakers occasionally produce kuh-RYE-nuh, which the y invites and neither language supports.
Nicknames for Karyna
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 199742 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2874reached in 1997
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%6 in 2025, 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.
Karyna in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karyna in Ukrainian — same name
- Karina in Russian — same name
- Karina in Polish — same name
- Carina in Spanish — same name
- Carina in Italian — same name
Karynas among us
people named Karyna are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Karyna
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Karyna
- #13208
- Karyna on the 2025 chart
- #516
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Karyna went to 6 girls in 2025, but Karina and Carina are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 503, which makes it the 516th most-given girls’ name of the year — 12,692 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 3,195 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 267,878 for Karyna itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Ligia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Karyna's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ligia climbed just as high around 1971, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ligia's path sketches the road Karyna is walking now.
Karyna 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
Karyna beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Karyna in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is standard across Eastern Europe rather than an American variation.
- Rina works as a short form in several languages at once.
- Three open syllables that sit well after almost any surname.
- Both possible origins are pleasant and neither is embarrassing.
- The y invites an English reader to say a long i, which is wrong in every language the name belongs to.
- Karina is much the commoner spelling and will be written instead.
- The meaning cannot be given without naming two possibilities.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Karyna
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Karynas 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 Karyna are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Karyna?
- Karyna is one of 3 recorded spellings. Karina is the more common one — 363 births in 2025 against 6 for Karyna.
- How popular is the name Karyna in 2025?
- Karyna ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Karyna?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Karyna — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Karyna with classmates?
- Karyna will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Karyna
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Karyna? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Karyna and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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