Karina
Around 37,500 Polish women carry it, but it fades fast now: just 38 newborn girls last year. The name grows from a Slavic root meaning "dear", a small warm word turned into a person's name.
Karina Pronunciation
Karina is pronounced kah-REE-nah (/kaˈrina/).
What Karina means
Where Karina comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Karina grows from a Slavic root meaning dear, beloved. The name works like a term of endearment that hardened into a person's name, a small warm word you might use for someone held close. Its short Polish gloss keeps the same two notes: miła, kochana. Affection made into a name.
The name travels. Cross a border and it changes its skin a little: Karine, the variant, turns up in Armenian and French records, the same three syllables filed under a different spelling. A Polish Karina and a French Karine can shake hands over a shared root without either needing translation.
You can watch the name settle into ordinary life on a single date. Open a Polish class register and a Karina finds her imieniny on the seventh of November, when the name gets its yearly turn on the calendar. The custom asks nothing grand of her, only cake and a few wishes. What the name has always claimed stays simple, and it stays true to those two Polish words: miła, kochana.
When Karina celebrates name day
Karina appears 2 times in the Polish name day calendar, 1 of them as a main name, the first on 2 August.
The days Polish calendars list this name on. By custom you celebrate one of them, usually the first after your birthday.
Rarer dates. Only the most complete calendars add this name on these days. Most skip them, so hardly anyone celebrates then.
How many people are named Karina
1 in 601 women in Poland is named Karina. 37,515 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #219 among female names.
Karina's popularity over time
38 girls were given the name in 2025, ranking #404 among newborns. It has been falling steadily since 2000. Still the #219 name among living women, even as it slips to #404 among newborns.
Where Karina is most popular
Karina is most popular in Subcarpathian, 57% above the national average (62 girls born 2019–2025), followed by Łódź (+55%) and Świętokrzyskie (+27%). It is least common in Opole and Podlaskie, 60% and 40% below average respectively.
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Subcarpathian62 girls born+57%
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Łódź64 girls born+55%
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Świętokrzyskie23 girls born+27%
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Lublin41 girls born+22%
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West Pomeranian33 girls born+20%
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Greater Poland80 girls born+14%
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Lower Silesian51 girls born−1%
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Lubusz16 girls born−1%
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Lesser Poland73 girls born−2%
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Masovian112 girls born−3%
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Pomeranian42 girls born−13%
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Kuyavian-Pomeranian29 girls born−19%
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Warmian-Masurian15 girls born−36%
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Silesian46 girls born−38%
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Podlaskie13 girls born−40%
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Opole6 girls born−60%
Karina as a middle name
Karina is a first name for 37,515 women in Poland and a middle name for another 8,817, an 81/19 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 118th, between Celina (8,843) and Ludwika (8,080).
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#116 Faustyna9,032
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#117 Celina8,843
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#118 Karina8,817
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#119 Ludwika8,080
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#120 Daniela8,071