Kharma
Feminine · “action”
Karma does not mean cosmic payback. It means action — the ordinary Sanskrit word for something done, from a verb meaning to do. The idea that it is a scoreboard keeping accounts is a nineteenth-century Western simplification of a technical term in several rather different philosophical systems.
How old is the name Kharma?
Kharma first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Kharma alive today was born around 2010, making them about 15 years old. About 500 people named Kharma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kharma most popular?
Kharma peaked in 2008, reaching #3710 nationally. Today it ranks #11932, 8,222 places below that high. See the whole 2008 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From karman to Kharma
The story of Kharma
Sanskrit distinguishes aspirated and unaspirated consonants as different letters, so k and kh are no more interchangeable than p and b are in English: kara and khara are different words. Karman has a plain k. Adding an h therefore produces a spelling that could not occur in the language it comes from, which is worth knowing even though it changes nothing about how the name is said in English. The concept has traveled further than almost any Indian word. It entered English through nineteenth-century theosophical writing, arrived stripped of the systems it belonged to, and settled into general use meaning roughly that things come back around — which is a small part of what it says and not the interesting part.
Meaning
action, deed
Sanskrit karman, an act or deed, from the root kr, to do or make. In Hindu, Buddhist and Jain thought it names both an action and the consequence attached to it, and the systems disagree about how that works. The h in this spelling does not belong: Sanskrit has separate letters for k and kh, and this word has the plain one.
How the name formed
- karman
- karma
- Kharma
Related forms: Karma · Karma
Pronouncing Kharma
KAR-muh
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly as the English word is said. The h is silent and does nothing. Sanskrit gives the r a light trill and both vowels a fuller value.
Nicknames for Kharma
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
- 1998
- Most girls named
- 200843 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3710reached in 2008
- Change vs 2024
- −46.2%7 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.
Kharma in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Karma in Sanskrit — same name
- Karma in Tibetan — related form
Kharmas among us
people named Kharma are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 229,610 born in 2025 was named Kharma
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kharma
- #11932
- Kharma on the 2025 chart
- #819
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kharma went to 7 girls in 2025, but Karma, Carma and Karmah are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 141, which makes it the 819th most-given girls’ name of the year — 11,113 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 11,399 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 229,610 for Kharma 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 Felissa test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kharma's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Felissa climbed just as high around 1970, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Felissa's path sketches the road Kharma is walking now.
Kharma 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
Kharma beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kharma in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Sanskrit meaning that is a plain, ordinary word rather than a mystical one.
- Two syllables that every English speaker already knows how to say.
- In Tibetan use it is a genuine given name for either child.
- Karma without the h is the correct spelling in every language that has the word.
- It is an English word with a strong general meaning, and people will make remarks about it.
- The h suggests a Sanskrit letter that is not in the word.
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What they receive
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Kharma
Feminine · #11932 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kharmas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Kharma are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kharma?
- Kharma is one of 4 recorded spellings. Karma is the more common one — 120 births in 2025 against 7 for Kharma.
- How popular is the name Kharma in 2025?
- Kharma ranks #11932 among US girl names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kharma?
- About 1 in every 229,610 US girls born in 2025 was named Kharma — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kharma with classmates?
- Kharma will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kharma
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vina#11932 · Retta#11932 · Missouri#11932 · Iola#11932 · Eddie#11932 · Thomas#11932 · Louetta#11932 · Elvina#11932
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kharma? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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