Karriem
An Arabic name meaning "generous" or "noble and honorable".
Name Census estimates that about 487 living Americans carry the first name Karriem. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Karriem today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karriem births was 1975 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karriem. 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.
People living today
487
~ 1 in 703,808 Americans
Peak year
1975
53 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2021 SSA rank
#9,718
Tracked since 1966
Census
Karriem in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 376 people with the first name Karriem, which placed it at #25,264 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
#25,264
National first-name rank
People counted
376
376 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
90.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karriem
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karriem is Black at 90.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Karriem 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 Karriem at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American90.4% · 340
- Two or more races4.3% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 15
- White1.1% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Karriem
Out of the 517 babies given the name Karriem since 1880, 99.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Karriem as a male name
- Ranked #13,100 in 2021
- 5 male births in 2021
- Peak: 1975 (48 births)
Karriem as a female name
- Ranked #9,718 in 1975
- 5 female births in 1975
- Peak: 1975 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karriem leans strongly male. 366 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 8 female bearers (2.1%).
Popularity
Karriem: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karriem from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 263 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karriem 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 Karriem during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karriems live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Karriem, while Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 43 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karriem
The name Karriem is of Arabic origin, derived from the word "karim" which means noble or generous. It is believed to have originated in the Arabian Peninsula during the medieval period, around the 7th or 8th century CE.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Karriem is in the Islamic scripture, the Quran, where it is mentioned as one of the attributes of God, Al-Kareem (The Most Generous). This association with nobility and generosity may have contributed to its popularity as a personal name among Arabic-speaking communities.
In the 10th century CE, a famous Arab poet and scholar named Karriem Ibn Abdullah Al-Farahidi lived in Basra, Iraq. He is renowned for his contributions to the study of Arabic grammar and lexicography. Another notable figure from the medieval period was Karriem Al-Razi, a Persian physician, philosopher, and alchemist who lived in the 9th and 10th centuries CE.
During the Ottoman Empire, which spanned from the 13th to the 20th century, the name Karriem was commonly used among the ruling elite and aristocracy. One example is Karriem Pasha, an Ottoman statesman and Grand Vizier who lived in the late 16th century.
In more recent history, there have been several prominent individuals with the name Karriem. Karriem Abdul-Jabbar, born in 1947, is a former American professional basketball player and one of the most successful and influential figures in the sport. Karriem Riggins, born in 1975, is an American jazz drummer and producer known for his work with artists like Diana Krall and Esperanza Spalding.
Other notable individuals include Karriem Westcott, a British actor and writer born in 1986, and Karriem Farraj, a Palestinian-American actor and filmmaker born in 1989. Karriem Noray Alston, born in 1979, is an American professional basketball player who has played in several international leagues.
People
Karriem + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karriem 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
Karriem: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karriem?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 487 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karriem 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 703,808 US residents.
Is Karriem a common name?
We classify Karriem as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 517 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karriem most popular?
The single biggest year for Karriem was 1975, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karriem is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karriem in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 376 people with the name Karriem, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,264 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 Karriem 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 Karriem?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karriem leans strongly male. 366 people counted with this name were male (97.9%), compared with 8 female bearers (2.1%). 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 Karriem?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karriem is Black at 90.4%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.3%) and Hispanic (4.0%). 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 Karriem most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Karriem in the 2020 Census, accounting for 90.4% (340 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 Karriem in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karriem a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Karriem in the SSA data are male. 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 Karriem still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karriem 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 Karriem 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 many people are called Karriem?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Karriem on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.