Karlina
A feminine name derived from Charles, meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 315 living Americans carry the first name Karlina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Karlina today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karlina births was 2013 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karlina. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Karlina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
315
~ 1 in 1,088,109 Americans
Peak year
2013
15 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2021 SSA rank
#12,829
Tracked since 1981
Census
Karlina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 379 people with the first name Karlina, which placed it at #25,119 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#25,119
National first-name rank
People counted
379
379 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karlina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karlina is White at 43.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.8%) and Black (10.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Karlina described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Karlina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.3% · 164
- Hispanic or Latino38.8% · 147
- Black or African American10.3% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 17
- Two or more races3.2% · 12
Popularity
Karlina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karlina from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 96 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karlina by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Karlina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karlina
The given name Karlina has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the root word "Karl" or "Karal," which means "free man" or "freeman." This name first emerged during the medieval period in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in regions with strong Germanic cultural influences.
Karlina is a feminine form of the masculine name Karl, which was popularized by the Frankish ruler Charlemagne (742-814 CE), whose birth name was Carolus Magnus. As Christianity spread across Europe, names derived from Karl became prevalent among various Christian communities.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Karlina can be found in the Annals of Fulda, a medieval chronicle written in the 9th century. The chronicle mentions a noblewoman named Karlina, who was the daughter of a Bavarian count.
In the 11th century, a Benedictine nun named Karlina von Seefeld (1040-1102) founded a convent in Seefeld, Bavaria, and was later canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church.
During the Renaissance period, Karlina Sophia (1574-1619) was a Swedish noblewoman and the wife of Duke Johan of Ostergotland, a prominent figure in the Swedish aristocracy.
In the 18th century, Karlina Elisabetha von Schleuen (1720-1781) was a Prussian aristocrat and the wife of Count Hans von Schleinitz, a high-ranking military officer in the Prussian army.
More recently, Karlina Leksono (1927-2007) was an Indonesian actress and singer who gained popularity in the mid-20th century for her roles in various Indonesian films and stage productions.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Karlina, reflecting its enduring presence across various cultural and historical contexts.
People
Karlina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karlina as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Karlina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karlina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 315 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karlina going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 1,088,109 US residents.
Is Karlina a common name?
We classify Karlina as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 323 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karlina most popular?
The single biggest year for Karlina was 2013, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karlina is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karlina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 379 people with the name Karlina, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,119 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Karlina in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Karlina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karlina appears almost entirely female. Of the 374 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Karlina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karlina is White at 43.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (38.8%) and Black (10.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Karlina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karlina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.3% (164 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Karlina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karlina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Karlina in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Karlina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karlina in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Karlina can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Karlina?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.