Carina
- Pronunciation
- [Ca-ri-na]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Pure
- Origin
- French
About the Name Carina
Carina comes from the Latin cara, meaning "dear" or "beloved," and is often interpreted as "darling" or "pure." It is also the name of a striking southern constellation, the keel, which adds a celestial dimension to its tender warmth. That blend of an affectionate meaning and a starry association gives Carina a romantic, slightly cosmopolitan air across the many European languages in which it appears, from Italian and Spanish to German and Scandinavian.
The three syllables, Ca-ri-na, give it a smooth, melodic flow, and its soft consonants make it feel graceful and easy to pronounce in English, Spanish, Italian, and beyond. The name reads as elegant and international, a gentle classic that travels well across cultures and never feels tied to a single place. Its warmth and refinement have kept it appealing to parents who want something both pretty and substantial.
Carina first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 — its peak year, at rank #567 — and remained on the chart through 2010, ranking #948 in that final year, with 3,923 top-1000 births overall. Recorded variants include Carine, Kareena, Karina, and Rina. Its turn-of-the-millennium run reflects its place among that era's softly romantic girls' names, a stylistic family that flourished in the 2000s.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Carina
US Popularity History (2000–2010)
Annual US births named Carina by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2000 with 460 girls named Carina (girl rank #567 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2010, ranked #948 for girls (271 US births). That's 381 places below its 2000 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Carina Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Carina the strongest states are Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connecticut | #418 | 38 |
| 2 | Massachusetts | #737 | 29 |
| 3 | Pennsylvania | #789 | 78 |
| 4 | Washington | #840 | 22 |
| 5 | New York | #853 | 151 |
| 6 | New Jersey | #867 | 50 |
| 7 | California | #885 | 218 |
| 8 | Colorado | #887 | 16 |
| 9 | Florida | #890 | 70 |
| 10 | Ohio | #895 | 41 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | #1,338 | 67 |
| 2 | Ohio | #895 | 41 |
| 3 | Florida | #890 | 70 |
| 4 | Colorado | #887 | 16 |
| 5 | California | #885 | 218 |
| 6 | New Jersey | #867 | 50 |
| 7 | New York | #853 | 151 |
| 8 | Washington | #840 | 22 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | #789 | 78 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | #737 | 29 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Carina in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Carina?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Carina to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Carina against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).