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Karen
Pronounced /ˈkæɹən/
Rank in 2024
#1,260
Born in 2024
184
Peak year
1957 · #5
Origin
Danish
Also recorded for boys:0 in 2024
1880 to 2024
UncommonIts story in numbers
- In 2024, 184 girls were named Karen, about 1 in every 8,767.
- It peaked in 1957 with 40,590 babies, ranked #5.
- It first shows up in the records in 1881.
- 987,811 girls have been named Karen since 1880.
Who else has this name
Babies named Karen per 1,000 born in each generation, on one shared scale.
- <0.1Greatest1901–27
- 4.8Silent1928–45
- 16.4Boomers1946–64
- 8.5Gen X1965–80
- 1.7Millennials1981–96
- 1.0Gen Z1997–12
- 0.3Gen Alpha2013–24
Greatest: 802 babies, 0.04 per 1,000. Silent: 98,788 babies, 4.78 per 1,000. Boomers: 587,291 babies, 16.40 per 1,000. Gen X: 217,283 babies, 8.50 per 1,000. Millennials: 47,907 babies, 1.70 per 1,000. Gen Z: 30,365 babies, 1.05 per 1,000. Gen Alpha: 5,239 babies, 0.26 per 1,000.
Meaning and origin
From Danish Karen, a vernacular form of Catherine that emerged in medieval Denmark. The term later acquired a distinct contemporary social meaning. Its association with a middle-aged woman is often attributed to the name’s relative popularity among baby boomer and Generation X cohorts. The term’s derogatory usage was subsequently popularized through African-American Vernacular English (AAVE).
- A female given name from Danish.
- A transliteration of the Armenian male given name Կարեն (Karen).
- Origin
- Danish
- Say it
- /ˈkæɹən/
From Wiktionary’s entry for Karen, CC BY-SA 4.0.