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Shem Tov · Hebrew names

Girl's nameOrigin: biblicalIn Israel: falling

KerenIn Hebrew: קרן · meaning, pronunciation and popularity in Israel

With vowel points: קֶרֶןRomanization: keren

Keren (Hebrew: קרן) is a girl's name of biblical origin. 18,486 people born in Israel between 1949 and 2024 have it today, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In 2024 it was given to 10 girls and ranked #703. Its peak year was 1975, with 1,362 babies.

People in Israel
18,486
born 1949–2024
Babies in 2024
10
rank #703
Peak year
1975
1,362 babies
USA, 2025
66
rank #2,607

Writing and saying Keren

In Hebrew letters the name is קרן, read right to left. Keren is the Latin spelling recorded by our review; families choose their own spelling in passports, so you may also meet other forms. Wiktionary romanizes it as "keren" (the accent marks the stressed syllable).

Meaning and origin

  • a female given name, Karen

Quoted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), unchanged.

Keren by year: Israel and abroad

How many girls out of every 10,000 born each year have the name. For Israel it counts the people born that year who carry the name today (the CBS counts residents by year of birth, not birth registrations).

Keren: rate per 10,000, 1950–2025

per 10,000 babies of the same sex

Keren in English-speaking countries

Keren in each official list: latest year, count, rank and peak
Country / regionYearBabiesRankPeak
United States202566#2,6072019 (189)
United Kingdom20254#4,9352006 (23)
England and Wales20254#4,8662006 (23)
Alberta20251#2,5382018 (3)

Counts for girls. The Hebrew page for Keren has every year and the other spellings.

Related Israeli names

Spelling variants and names that look or sound close in Hebrew.

Questions about Keren

How do you write Keren in Hebrew?

Keren is written קרן in Hebrew (with vowel points: קֶרֶן). Hebrew is read right to left. A dictionary romanization is "keren".

How many people in Israel are named Keren?

18,486 people born between 1949 and 2024 carry the name קרן: 18,422 women and 64 men. The count comes from the CBS table of current first names by year of birth; years with fewer than 5 people are not published.

Is Keren a boy's or a girl's name?

In Israel it is almost always a girl's name: 99.7% of the people named קרן are women.

What does the name Keren mean?

English Wiktionary describes it as: "a female given name, Karen"

Is Keren used outside Israel?

The name Keren appears in the official baby name lists of English-speaking countries. In the United States 66 girls were given it in 2025 (#2,607), per the Social Security Administration. In the UK 4 in 2025 (ONS, NRS and NISRA combined).

Sources

Israel: Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), current first names of people born 1949–2024 by sex, population group and year of birth, processed 2026-09-27. CBS publications.

Abroad

Counts are copied as published. We only merged accented spellings (Zoë = Zoe) and computed ranks and rates. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia and the Open Government Licence – Alberta.