Karys
Karys is a feminine name of Greek origin meaning "eternal life" or "immortal existence".
Name Census estimates that about 497 living Americans carry the first name Karys. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Karys today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karys births was 2006 (56 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karys. 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 Karys with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
497
~ 1 in 689,647 Americans
Peak year
2006
56 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,859
Tracked since 1994
Census
Karys in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 514 people with the first name Karys, which placed it at #20,187 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
#20,187
National first-name rank
People counted
514
514 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
58.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karys
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karys is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (15.4%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Karys 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 Karys at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White58.0% · 298
- Black or African American15.4% · 79
- Hispanic or Latino12.3% · 63
- Two or more races10.3% · 53
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.7% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Popularity
Karys: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karys from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 274 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
Karys 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 Karys during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karys' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Karys
The given name Karys is believed to have originated from the Old Norse language, which was spoken by the Germanic peoples who inhabited Scandinavia and their diaspora during the Viking Age, roughly between the 8th and 11th centuries. The name is thought to be derived from the Old Norse word "kárr," which means "curly" or "curled," referring to the physical characteristic of having curly hair.
Karys was a relatively uncommon name during the Viking Age, but it did appear in some ancient Norse sagas and historical records. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the "Grettis saga," a 14th-century Icelandic saga that tells the story of the outlaw Grettir the Strong. In this saga, Karys is mentioned as the name of a Norwegian farmer.
Throughout history, there have been a few notable individuals who bore the name Karys. One such person was Karys Magnusson (1280-1347), a Norwegian chieftain and landowner who played a significant role in the Norwegian Civil War, also known as the "Age of the Sturlungs," which lasted from 1130 to 1240.
Another historical figure named Karys was Karys Halldorsdottir (1525-1589), an Icelandic noblewoman and landowner who was known for her involvement in a long-running feud between two prominent Icelandic families, the Sturlungs and the Haukdælir.
In the realm of literature, Karys Björnsson (1874-1952) was an Icelandic poet and writer who gained recognition for his works that celebrated the natural beauty of Iceland and the resilience of its people.
It is worth noting that the name Karys was predominantly used in Scandinavian countries, particularly in Iceland and Norway, during the medieval and early modern periods. However, it fell out of widespread use in those regions by the 19th century.
While the name Karys is relatively rare today, it has experienced a modest resurgence in recent years, possibly due to a renewed interest in Nordic culture and tradition. Some parents may choose this name for their children as a way to honor their Scandinavian heritage or simply for its unique and descriptive meaning.
People
Karys + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karys 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
Karys: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karys?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 497 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karys 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 689,647 US residents.
Is Karys a common name?
We classify Karys as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 503 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karys most popular?
The single biggest year for Karys was 2006, when 56 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karys is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karys in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 514 people with the name Karys, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,187 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 Karys 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 Karys?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karys leans strongly female. 507 people counted with this name were female (98.1%), compared with 10 male bearers (1.9%). 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 Karys?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karys is White at 58.0%. The next largest groups are Black (15.4%) and Hispanic (12.3%). 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 Karys most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karys in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.0% (298 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 Karys in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karys a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Karys 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 Karys still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karys 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 Karys 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 Karys?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.