Keren
Feminine · “horn”
Keren is a horn or a ray of light in Hebrew — and Job's third daughter is Keren-happuch, the horn of eye-paint.
How old is the name Keren?
Keren first appears in US birth records in 1939 — 86 years ago. The typical Keren alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 4,900 people named Keren are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Keren most popular?
Keren peaked in 2020, reaching #1236 nationally. Today it ranks #2607, 1,371 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From keren to Keren
The story of Keren
Exodus says Moses's face shone when he came down from Sinai, using a verb from keren; the Vulgate rendered it as horns, which is why Michelangelo's Moses has them. Job's third daughter is named for a cosmetic horn. Keren is standard in modern Israel and is in current American use.
Meaning
horn; ray of light
From the Hebrew keren, 'horn', which also means a ray of light — Moses's face is described with the same word, which Latin mistranslated as horns. Job 42 names a daughter Keren-happuch, 'horn of antimony', a cosmetic container. The Hebrew is documented.
How the name formed
- keren
- Keren
Related forms: קרן · Keren-happuch
Pronouncing Keren
KEH-ren
Two syllables, stress on the first. Hebrew stresses the last, ke-REN.
Nicknames for Keren
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
- 1939
- Most girls named
- 2020184 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1236reached in 2020
- Change vs 2023
- −34.7%66 in 2025, from 101
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.
Keren in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- קרן in Hebrew — transliteration
- Keren-happuch in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Kerens among us
people named Keren are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 24,353 born in 2025 was named Keren
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 Keyona test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Keren's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Keyona climbed just as high around 1994, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Keyona's path sketches the road Keren is walking now.
Keren 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
Where Keren is headed
Keren is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Keren beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Keren in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That Michelangelo's Moses has horns because of a mistranslated keren is a first-rate fact.
- The horn-and-ray double meaning is genuinely striking.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- Karen is a near-homophone with an unfortunate modern sense.
- Hebrew and English stress it differently.
- It reads as specifically Israeli.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Keren
Feminine · #2607 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kerens 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 Keren are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Keren in 2025?
- Keren ranks #2607 among US girl names in 2025, with 66 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Keren?
- About 1 in every 24,353 US girls born in 2025 was named Keren — 66 in all.
- Will my child share the name Keren with classmates?
- Keren will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Keren
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Navie#2607 · Ellyana#2607 · Atalia#2607 · Maddox#2607 · Henny#2607 · Diane#2607 · Adella#2607 · Delylah#2607
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Keren? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Keren and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
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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