# Kareem (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/kareem/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | Arabic |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /kəˈɹiːm/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 18,359 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 18,161 / 198 (1% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 1,254, 1996 to 2025 |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 14 | 4,465 |
| 1977 | 12 | 5,340 |
| 1978 | 15 | 4,539 |
| 1979 | 14 | 4,937 |
| 1980 | 21 | 3,766 |
| 1981 | 7 | 8,509 |
| 1983 | 7 | 8,443 |
| 1984 | 6 | 9,671 |
| 1985 | 5 | 11,455 |
| 1987 | 7 | 9,236 |
| 1990 | 5 | 14,001 |
| 1992 | 5 | 14,303 |
| 1994 | 6 | 12,539 |
| 2000 | 5 | 16,240 |
| 2013 | 5 | 17,912 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 306 | 743 |
| 2012 | 311 | 745 |
| 2013 | 352 | 683 |
| 2014 | 315 | 751 |
| 2015 | 334 | 732 |
| 2016 | 345 | 709 |
| 2017 | 352 | 700 |
| 2018 | 347 | 698 |
| 2019 | 386 | 672 |
| 2020 | 419 | 639 |
| 2021 | 382 | 696 |
| 2022 | 407 | 671 |
| 2023 | 442 | 628 |
| 2024 | 405 | 675 |
| 2025 | 383 | 702 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 37 | 812 |
| 2012 | 42 | 765 |
| 2013 | 30 | 954 |
| 2014 | 48 | 684 |
| 2015 | 61 | 601 |
| 2016 | 47 | 726 |
| 2017 | 49 | 709 |
| 2018 | 51 | 675 |
| 2019 | 47 | 707 |
| 2020 | 70 | 535 |
| 2021 | 49 | 704 |
| 2022 | 78 | 500 |
| 2023 | 77 | 508 |
| 2024 | 85 | 468 |
| 2025 | 79 | 487 |

## People named Kareem

- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player (born 1947)
- Kareem Rush, American basketball player (born 1980)
- Kareem Amer, Egyptian Norwegian blogger
- Kareem Hunt, American football player (born 1995)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.