Karen
Girl nameKaren has been given to 990,774 babies in the U.S. since 1881. It peaked in 1957.
Meaning & origin /ˈkæɹən/
From Danish Karen, a vernacular form of Catherine that arose in medieval Denmark. The sense "middle-aged woman" comes from the popularity of the name among baby boomers and Gen-Xers. The derogatory usage was popularized via African-American Vernacular English.
Origin: Danish
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Popularity over time births per year, 1880–2025
Total babies
990,774
Peak year
1957 (40,668 babies)
Rank in 2025
Below top 1000
First recorded
1881
10-year trend
▼ -72%
Gender split
100% girls / 0% boys
Famous people named Karen
Karen Blixen
Danish writer
Karen Gillan
Scottish actress and filmmaker
Lucy Hale
American actress and singer
Karen Horney
American-German psychoanalyst
Notability data from Wikidata (CC0).
Names with a similar vibe
Same primary gender, peaked around the same years, and roughly as common as Karen.
1,126,022 babies since 1880
833,874 babies since 1880
744,478 babies since 1880
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669,611 babies since 1880
610,597 babies since 1897
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