Fun data analysis done at The Pudding about the popularity of the ‘Karen’ first name. The goal is to understand why this name became such a meme.

Chances are you don’t know too many babies named Karen today, but when the name hit its peak at #3 in 1965, Karens were everywhere. (Important context: the US was 88.6% White at the time, so it’s safe to assume many Karens are White). It’s this swift rise and fall in popularity that’s made Karen the name so era defining and made “Karen” the meme a perfect caricature of women of a certain age and a certain privilege.

It’s also fun to see how they used the popularity curve of the Karen name to find other names with similar popularity curves.

Well, based on these comparisons and their data, the male ‘Karen’ is most likely David first, and Gary second…