The Name ‘Karen’ Is Going Extinct Among Baby Names
Karen wants to speak to the manager of baby name-givers because the name has absolutely tanked in popularity in the last year, according to figures released by the Social Security Administration.
Throughout 2020 the name Karen fell 171 spots on the popularity list, from a low of 660 to number 831, Huffington Post reported. The parents of just 325 baby girls named their daughter Karen last year, down from 439 in 2019. The name’s popularity had already been dwindling, falling to its lowest ranking since 1929 by the end of last year, the outlet reported last September. In 1965, the name hit peak popularity, with nearly 33,000 newborns named Karen.
While there’s no scientific link between the name Karen and the derogatory connotations with the entitled woman who “want to speak to the manager,” there’s no denying that the name-turned-meme is morphing into something undesirable. The “Central Park Karen” is not excluded from this, real name Amy Cooper falsely called police to say a Black bird-watcher who had asked her to comply with leashing her dog had threatened to harm her. Another infamous Karen incident that took place in New York, earning the moniker “SoHo Karen,” falsely accused a Black teenager of stealing her cellphone in the lobby of the Arlo SoHo Hotel. In the disturbing video, Miya Ponsetto lunges and tackles the teenager, only to have her phone returned by an Uber driver moments later.
“Baby names are always a mirror of the times,” noted the website Baby Center last October, noting that 2020′s changes reflected “a year of loss and political divisiveness,” with “Kobe” gaining a whopping 175% name increase after the helicopter-crash death of basketball great Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, who’s name popularity soared even further, by 216%.
Watch a compilation of “Karen” freakouts below:
