Meaning not yet researched.
Kareem: US boys given the name each year, 1880 to 2025, from Social Security card applications. 383 in 2025. Its best rank was #367 in 1977.
US births per year · SSA card applications
Peaked at #367 in 1977; #702 in 2025. Every baby recorded as Kareem in 2025 was a boy.
Baby name · US data 1880–2025
#702 for US boys in 2025. Its best year was 1977, at #367.
Hover, tap or use the arrow keys for any year. Years with fewer than five babies of a sex are not published by SSA and show as zero.
Kareem: US boys given the name each year from 1880 to 2025. 383 boys in 2025. Peak: #367 in 1977 · most boys in one year: 459 (1980).
In 2025, 383 US boys were named Kareem, making it the 702nd most common boys’ name of the year, down 27 places from #675 in 2024. That is 22 fewer than the 405 boys named Kareem in 2024. Its best rank for boys was #367, reached in 1977. The most boys given the name in a single year was 459, in 1980. For comparison, it was #732 in 2015 and unranked in 1950.
Social Security card records list Kareem in 59 years of the 146 from 1880 to 2025, starting in 1964 with 8 babies. In all, 18,359 US babies have been given the name, 1.1% of them girls and 99% boys. Its busiest decade was the 2010s, with 3,387 babies named Kareem.
Over the 10 years from 2016 to 2025, 3,868 US boys were named Kareem; the busiest of those years was 2023, with 442. In 2025 that was about 1 in 4,460 of the boys in SSA’s list for the year.
Among the states, Kareem ranked highest in Michigan in 2025, at #335 for boys there. It was not in the top 100 of any state. Related spellings in the SSA files include Karim (6,944 babies since 1880) and Karam (1,631 babies since 1880). Rarer spellings such as Karriem, Karem and Careem are summarised on this page.
Meaning not yet researched.
We publish a meaning only with a cited source and a confidence label, and never generate one. Meanings are being researched for the most common names first.
Rare spellings summarised here: Karriem (517), Karem (362), Careem (164), Kariem (159), Kahreem (41), Karreem (28), Kaream (28), Karym (26), Karrem (15), Kareme (5).
Numbers are all-time US births. Links come from Wikidata’s “said to be the same as” (P460, CC0) and our spelling rule: at most two letters different, with the same sound pattern.
No nicknames listed for Kareem in the open dataset we use.
Source: carltonnorthern/nicknames (Apache-2.0).
US boys. Rank within each state. SSA leaves out states where fewer than five boys got the name, so 30 are not listed.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank 2025 | Rank 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 27 | #335 | #383 |
| Illinois | 28 | #388 | #662 |
| New Jersey | 20 | #402 | #493 |
| Maryland | 9 | #540 | #609 |
| Georgia | 18 | #575 | #642 |
| Ohio | 17 | #587 | #501 |
| Florida | 29 | #593 | #822 |
| Missouri | 9 | #619 | — |
| Louisiana | 7 | #629 | — |
| Virginia | 11 | #647 | #454 |
| Alabama | 7 | #651 | — |
| North Carolina | 14 | #663 | #516 |
| Kentucky | 6 | #668 | — |
| Pennsylvania | 13 | #689 | #681 |
| California | 40 | #690 | #748 |
| Indiana | 9 | #692 | #767 |
| Arizona | 8 | #750 | #956 |
| New York | 19 | #757 | #457 |
| Colorado | 6 | #809 | — |
| Texas | 25 | #965 | #827 |
| Tennessee | 5 | #1,107 | #982 |
Births and national rank for each year SSA lists the name, newest first.
| Year | Girls | Girls rank | Boys | Boys rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | — | — | 383 | #702 |
| 2024 | — | — | 405 | #675 |
| 2023 | — | — | 442 | #628 |
| 2022 | — | — | 407 | #671 |
| 2021 | — | — | 382 | #696 |
| 2020 | — | — | 419 | #639 |
| 2019 | — | — | 386 | #672 |
| 2018 | — | — | 347 | #698 |
| 2017 | — | — | 352 | #700 |
| 2016 | — | — | 345 | #709 |
| 2015 | — | — | 334 | #732 |
| 2014 | — | — | 315 | #751 |
| 2013 | 5 | #17,912 | 352 | #683 |
| 2012 | — | — | 311 | #745 |
| 2011 | — | — | 306 | #743 |
| 2010 | — | — | 334 | #700 |
| 2009 | — | — | 314 | #741 |
| 2008 | — | — | 309 | #739 |
| 2007 | — | — | 314 | #731 |
| 2006 | — | — | 303 | #714 |
| 2005 | — | — | 294 | #700 |
| 2004 | — | — | 346 | #619 |
| 2003 | — | — | 299 | #664 |
| 2002 | — | — | 316 | #624 |
| 2001 | — | — | 324 | #606 |
| 2000 | 5 | #16,240 | 303 | #620 |
| 1999 | — | — | 300 | #610 |
| 1998 | — | — | 313 | #595 |
| 1997 | — | — | 295 | #600 |
| 1996 | — | — | 301 | #596 |
| 1995 | — | — | 293 | #601 |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,539 | 357 | #544 |
| 1993 | — | — | 317 | #576 |
| 1992 | 5 | #14,303 | 348 | #548 |
| 1991 | — | — | 332 | #560 |
| 1990 | 5 | #14,001 | 312 | #573 |
| 1989 | — | — | 298 | #561 |
| 1988 | — | — | 289 | #541 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,236 | 292 | #526 |
| 1986 | — | — | 254 | #560 |
| 1985 | 5 | #11,455 | 279 | #522 |
| 1984 | 6 | #9,671 | 246 | #553 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,443 | 313 | #475 |
| 1982 | — | — | 319 | #473 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,509 | 317 | #467 |
| 1980 | 21 | #3,766 | 459 | #373 |
| 1979 | 14 | #4,937 | 358 | #422 |
| 1978 | 15 | #4,539 | 361 | #408 |
| 1977 | 12 | #5,340 | 449 | #367 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,465 | 380 | #398 |
| 1975 | 16 | #4,020 | 417 | #380 |
| 1974 | 13 | #4,573 | 326 | #438 |
| 1973 | 12 | #4,680 | 242 | #501 |
| 1972 | 23 | #2,931 | 378 | #405 |
| 1971 | — | — | 44 | #1,263 |
| 1970 | — | — | 12 | #2,797 |
| 1967 | — | — | 5 | #4,260 |
| 1966 | — | — | 5 | #4,244 |
| 1964 | — | — | 8 | #3,157 |
About the data: counts are Social Security card applications for US births, for names given to at least five babies of a sex in a year (SSA, names.zip, public domain). Ranks follow SSA’s own order: most births first, ties alphabetical. Files retrieved 2026-10-05 (checksum on our sources page).