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Karen
I'm just wondering, do you think Karen is still usable?It is a tiny bit dated (not as much as other names of that generation) but that doesn't bother me.However, "Karen" seems to have become a term for an entitled, annoying, demanding person (used everywhere, especially on twitter).The wiki entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_(slang)I don't like Karen enough to use, but I was just wondering. Do you think it will become completely unusable or already is?I honestly feel bad for all the women actually named Karen these days.
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Nope. I wouldn't use it.
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It’s dated and that’s the only reason I wouldn’t use it, not because someone made a rude meme of the name.
The name Cara, Karenina, Corinne, Corinna are all nice alternatives.
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I've always really liked it (along with the spelling Keren), but yeah I think it's kind of unusable right now. Which is too bad. I like it a lot better than most of the other names from that era. I wish they'd picked a different dated name to pick on, lol.
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I don't think it's usable.Even without the stereotype I wouldn't personally use it. I like other names from Karen's generation (Linda, Barbara) but I don't like the -en ending.
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I think it's usable because the meme will fade. I like Karen and feel sorry right now for bearers.
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I don't think it's usable anymore, and I don't think it will be for quite some time.
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I’m pretty neutral to the name, but I hate the meme. I feel bad for anyone named Karen.
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I don’t like it. I went to middle school with a girl named Karen and she was mean and very stuck up. I’ll always associate the name with her and would never use it. I love the name Kara though. I prefer it spelled Cara but it’s very pretty.
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I had always liked the name Karen, thought it was pretty (and really mostly associated it with the Babysitter Club Little Sister books from back in the day), but yeah I think it's pretty unusable these days. I can't hear the name and not think of it's slang meaning these days. I even find myself internally calling people 'Karens' these days. I will say I always liked Kara a lot more, which is very similar to Karen. I'm wondering if that name is even still usable or if it's just too close to Karen.
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Meh. It just seems dated to me, and the meme has definitely ruined it beyond use.
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My mother likes saying, "Don't be a Karen." To her, Karen is surburban, boring, dull, maybe a little dumb. What can I say? She went to high school with a lot of them back in the mid seventies. This is something she even said in the late nineties, as I grew up. Personally I like the name, but it is a little dated by now, and my mom might disown me, should I name a future child Karen.
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But I don't believe it is unusable.
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Karen is a name I’ve loved for many years so I find the current meme quite annoying. But it’ll pass as all memes do. I like Karen pronounced both the English way (Care-ren) and the Danish way (Caan).
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HateEven before the name's association with aggressively myopic white ladies was born, I hated the name. It feels like a pair of sounds rather than a name.
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Do you think it's unusable?
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Oh, it's definitely usable. I just have always loathed it.
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I think Karen is unusable at this time, but I also feel that it was way more than "a tiny bit" dated before it became a term for an entitled, annoying, demanding woman, so wasn't being used much anyway. I agree wholeheartedly with your last sentence. This whole Karen thing annoys me.

This message was edited 7/2/2020, 7:10 AM

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This issue has been discussed a lot on this board lately.
I don't think it's really that much of an issue; Karen has been so common for so long and across such a wide range of ages and ethnicities that this Karen meme is not going to be the only reason people know about the name. It will likely become a dated meme soon anyway, the way memes come and go.I attended an eighth-grade graduation last year, and out of a not very big class, there were I think two or three Karens; it was a mostly Hispanic class so apparently Karen is popular in that demographic, or at least was 15 years ago; so it is definitely still seen on younger people.
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I like Karen and Karin very much, but only with the European pronunciation. When it sounds like Care-in or Karrin, count me out.I've never encountered Karen as a slang term, but then I'm not in the US or on Twitter.
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I've read that previously. I don't agree with it. Even if her name is Karen.
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Thanks for the interesting article.. I never said it was sexist or racist to call someone a Karen and I don't think that it is. My actual question was whether you think it is still usable as a name as it has become so popular as a meme.
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I think so. This woman, named Karen, explores why it is not a slur. And therefore, if you wanted to use it, it is fine.
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Just because it isn't a slur that doesn't mean that people can't have a negative image of it. The term is strongly associated with an annoying, intolerant, demanding personality and it has become a slang word in every day conversations.
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