Origin of the name "Carinio"

I was speaking with a friend recently, and I remarked on how odd it was that most people do not know the meaning and/or etymology of their own name even though they are called by it every single day.

She mentioned she had a horse named "Carinio" (apparently it used to be a famous race horse, I believe). I thought it sounded Italian, but I have had zero luck in finding any references concerning the name "Carinio" for a horse or otherwise (the only thing I managed to find was a reference to Carino's Italian restaurant).

Does anyone have a reference for such a name (or can point me to a proper place to look for references)?

I speak Spanish as a second language. Cariño - pronounced (kareenyo) refers to the child like sentiment of love toward say a teddy bear. There is no English equivalent. I looked the word up in my Spanish dictionary and it says - affection, fondness, tenderness, kindness. I looked in (http://spanishetym.com/directory/c?page=6) for root meanings. One lead says "Roberts (2014) believes the source was from cariñar "to miss," a word endemic to Aragon. Alternatively, the word may come from Aragonese cariño 'id.' Both proposed etymologies likely come from Latin carere "to lack" (see carecer a word which directly derives from this verb)."
Since in Spanish cariño has the masculine "o" ending - I thought it odd since words associated with intimacy are linguistically a more feminine trait in Spanish. I would expect the word to end in "a".

Perhaps this word is associated with "caress" in English. Chambers Etymological Dictionary points to (Italian) carezza - endearment, (Latin) carus - dear [see charity]