Karim

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Карим in KZ Kazakhstan.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Karim is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Bangla surname838K records spelled Karim76 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, United States

  Languages: Bangla, Hindi, Urdu

  Also written Kareem, করিম, Korim, Krim, Karimu

• French surname424K records spelled Karim92 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Spain, Côte d’Ivoire, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Kàrim, Karîm, Kàrîm, Kärîm, Kãrîm

• Indonesian surname144K records spelled Karim23 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Karim', Kàrim, Kãrįm, Kãřïm, Kąrim

• a separate surname119K records spelled Karim8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in India, Pakistan, United States, Morocco

  Also written Karīm, Kärim, Kārīm, Karím, Kārim

• Portuguese surname19K records spelled Karim30 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Brazil, United States, India, United Kingdom

  Also written Kárim, Kàrim, Karím, Kãrïm, Kārìm

• Russian given name19K records spelled Karim167 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Russia, Kazakhstan, Türkiye, Kyrgyzstan

  Languages: Russian, Uzbek, Kazakh

  Also written Карим, Керим, Кәрім, Карім, Kerim

83 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Karim is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In Swedish, Karim är ett arabiskt namn med betydelsen ’generös, ädel’. Kerem och Kerim är turkiska former.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In Arabic, generous

  as a name·African Muslim Names

• In English, Arabic: noble, generous

  as a name·Baby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

• In Arabic, benevolent

  as a name·African Muslim Names

• ‘Noble’, ‘generous’. Feminine form: Karima.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 96 years between 1914–2016. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Anna Karimab. 1870BGnot in their usual nameBulgarian writer and activist, editor
• Mustai Karimb. 1919RUBashkir Soviet poet, writer and playwright (1919–2005)
• Salim Abdool Karimb. 1960ZASouth African researcher
• Quarraisha Karimb. 1960ZASouth African researcher
• Ignatius Aphrem IIb. 1965SYnot in their usual name123rd Syriac Orthodox Patriarch
• Nelly Karimb. 1974EGEgyptian ballerina and actress
• Alexander Karimb. 1976SESwedish actor
• Jawed Karimb. 1979USAmerican entrepreneur, co-founder of YouTube (born 1979)
• Arfa Karimb. 1995PKPakistani computer scientist (1995–2012)
• Muhammad Karimb. 1995PKPakistani alpine skier

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,267 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Karim?

We estimate roughly 13 thousand people bear Karim (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Karim have the most bearers?

Karim is most frequently recorded in Bangladesh, where it is most often spelled karim.

How common is Karim compared with other names?

In Bangladesh, Karim is the 63rd most common surname of 11,292 surnames recorded there.

What does the name Karim mean?

Recorded meaning: Muslim; from a personal name based on Arabic karlm ‘kind’, ‘generous’.