A person’s name is extremely important to who they are at their core. It’s how the world sees them and views them without even getting to know them. Sometimes, names are sentimental and tell specific stories of culture, family, and tradition. Other times, names showcase popularity and trends of the time period in which a person is born. Either way, names are significant when it comes to a person.
Every few years, there are names that are popular among new parents.
That’s why so many kids go to school and make friends with kids in their class who have the same exact name. Trends around baby names are common and not new.
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There are also baby names that become less popular as the years go on.
Sometimes, trends can work the opposite way in popularity. With currents events and social news, there are names that come up that many people try to avoid. Cultural trends can work both ways.
Parents are trying to avoid using the name “Karen” for their children now.
If you are an active social media user, you’d know that the name “Karen” has become synonymous with meme culture and certain types of individuals, despite many people who are actually named Karen being good-hearted individuals.
Recently, the “Karen” meme has become extremely popular with social media users.
“Karen” has become a placeholder for a variety of people in society. Many times, people use “Karen” to refer to Caucasian women that have contradictory opinions or rude sentiments. It stems from Twitter and other social media platforms.
The “Karen” meme is not new.
In fact, there are dozens of other names that have been used in the same context and even in some music. For example, both Sir Mix A Lot and Beyoncé used “Becky” to generalize women as well.
Using a name to generalize a specific group of individuals actually happened before social media even existed.
According to CNN , in pre-Civil War America, slaves used to refer to white women who wanted to showcase power over them as “Miss Ann.”
Studying why people use the name “Karen” in this context is extremely complicated.
Many people use the term “Karen” to represent people who sometimes have racist views and sentiments. According to André Brock, a professor at Georgia Tech , using “Karen” and “Becky” is a resistance tactic of the Black community.
Many people who are named Karen aren’t exactly thrilled at the comparison.
Many women named Karen are people of color and part of minority groups , as well. Being thrown into this comparison due to the meme community is hard for them to truly cope with.
The name was once one of the most popular baby names for girls in America during the 1940s-1970s.
“Karen” was still in the top 200 baby names as recently as 2008. However, in the last 6 months, the name’s popularity has declined even further.
“In the past six months, we’ve had zero people adding it to their favorite name list [on the site]. It goes to show that there’s definitely a stigma attached to the name. We had people adding it until six to seven months ago,” said Baby Names Podcast co-host Jennifer Moss in an interview .
Therefore, parents are trying to avoid any confusion by simply avoiding the name altogether.
Instead of having their children grow up with the connotation of the meme community, parents are less likely to name their children Karen. It truly shows how impactful meme culture and social media really are today.
