Karsten
A masculine Scandinavian name derived from the Old Norse word "Karsi", meaning warrior or peasant.
Name Census estimates that about 3,307 living Americans carry the first name Karsten. It is a predominantly male name (95.1% of registrations). The average person named Karsten today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karsten births was 2010 (140 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karsten. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Karsten with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Karsten is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 167 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
3.3K
~ 1 in 103,645 Americans
Peak year
2010
140 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,921
Tracked since 1950
Census
Karsten in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,350 people with the first name Karsten, which placed it at #5,196 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,196
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,350 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
77.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karsten
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karsten is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Karsten described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Karsten at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White77.9% · 2,608
- Black or African American9.0% · 302
- Two or more races5.0% · 169
- Hispanic or Latino4.7% · 158
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.7% · 90
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 23
Gender
Gender distribution for Karsten
Karsten leans heavily male at 95.1% of total registrations, but 167 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Karsten as a male name
- Ranked #3,921 in 2024
- 28 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (135 births)
Karsten as a female name
- Ranked #16,738 in 2019
- 5 female births in 2019
- Peak: 1997 (13 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karsten leans strongly male. 3,145 people counted with this name were male (93.9%), compared with 204 female bearers (6.1%).
Popularity
Karsten: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karsten from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,156 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karsten by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Karsten during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karstens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 25 states and territories. California, Texas, Washington recorded the most babies named Karsten, while Louisiana, Colorado, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 39 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karsten
The given name Karsten originated from the Germanic language. It is derived from the Old Norse words "karl" meaning man or husband, and "sten" meaning stone. The name can be interpreted to mean "the strong one" or "warrior stone." It was popular among the ancient Norse and Viking civilizations from around the 8th to 11th centuries AD, particularly in Scandinavia and the areas that make up modern-day Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Karsten was in the 13th century Icelandic saga, the Sturlunga saga. It refers to a chieftain named Karsten Sighvatsson who lived in the late 12th century. Another early mention was in the 14th century Danish chronicle, Sønderjyske Krønike, which documented a Karsten Thomesen who was a respected landowner and nobleman.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Karsten. In the 16th century, Karsten Vognsen was a Danish naval officer and cartographer who created some of the earliest maps of the Arctic regions. Karsten Niebuhr (1733-1815) was a German mathematician, cartographer, and explorer who led a pioneering expedition to Arabia and wrote detailed accounts of his travels.
In the 19th century, Karsten Kiesow (1856-1924) was a German architect and builder who designed several prominent buildings in Berlin and other German cities. Karsten Braasch (1892-1970) was a Norwegian gymnast who won three gold medals at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm.
More recently, Karsten Nohl (born 1981) is a German computer security researcher and cryptographer, known for his work in exposing vulnerabilities in mobile communication systems. Karsten Muller (born 1970) is a retired German beach volleyball player who won a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The name Karsten has maintained a presence throughout history, particularly in Germanic and Scandinavian cultures. Its origins and meaning have been associated with strength, masculinity, and valor, which may have contributed to its enduring popularity over the centuries.
People
Karsten + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karsten as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Karsten: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karsten?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,307 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karsten going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 103,645 US residents.
Is Karsten a common name?
We classify Karsten as "Rare". It ranks above 95.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,392 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karsten most popular?
The single biggest year for Karsten was 2010, when 140 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karsten is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karsten in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,350 people with the name Karsten, or 1.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,196 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Karsten in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Karsten?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karsten leans strongly male. 3,145 people counted with this name were male (93.9%), compared with 204 female bearers (6.1%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Karsten?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karsten is White at 77.9%. The next largest groups are Black (9.0%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Karsten most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karsten in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.9% (2,608 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Karsten in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karsten a male name?
Yes, 95.1% of people registered as Karsten in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Karsten still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karsten in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Karsten can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Karsten?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.