Karen
A Scandinavian feminine name meaning "pure" or "clear".
Name Census estimates that about 723,738 living Americans carry the first name Karen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Karen today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Karen births was 1957 (40,667 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Karen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Karen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Karen is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 2,784 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Karen have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
724K
~ 1 in 474 Americans
Peak year
1957
40,667 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2023 SSA rank
#1,263
Tracked since 1881
Census
Karen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 882,585 people with the first name Karen, which placed it at #33 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#33
National first-name rank
People counted
883K
882,585 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
292.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Karen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karen is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.9%) and Black (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Karen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Karen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.6% · 720,135
- Hispanic or Latino7.9% · 69,455
- Black or African American6.1% · 53,478
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 19,453
- Two or more races1.8% · 16,054
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 4,010
Gender
Gender distribution for Karen
Out of the 990,595 babies given the name Karen since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Karen as a male name
- Ranked #13,191 in 2023
- 5 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1964 (91 births)
Karen as a female name
- Ranked #1,263 in 2024
- 184 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1957 (40,590 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karen appears almost entirely female. Of the 882,576 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Karen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Karen from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 333,095 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Karen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Karen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Karens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Karen, while Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19,340 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Karen
The name Karen is a variant of the ancient Greek name Katerina, which is derived from the Greek word "katharos," meaning "pure" or "clear." It is believed to have originated in the Mediterranean region during the Byzantine era.
In ancient Greece, the name Katerina was associated with the Greek goddess Hecate, who was revered as the goddess of witchcraft, sorcery, and the night. The name was popular among early Christian communities in the region, and it gained wider recognition after the rise of Christianity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Karen can be found in the hagiographies (biographies of saints) of the 5th century. St. Karen, also known as St. Cyrene, was a martyr from Tyre (modern-day Lebanon) who was persecuted for her Christian faith during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the early 4th century.
In the Middle Ages, the name Karen gained popularity across Europe, particularly in Scandinavia and the British Isles. Notable historical figures with the name Karen include Karen Brahes (1528-1604), a Danish noblewoman and astronomer who made significant contributions to the scientific understanding of the Tychonic system of planetary motion.
During the Renaissance, the name Karen was associated with the arts and literature. Karen Anckers (1493-1532) was a Dutch Renaissance poet and writer who is considered one of the earliest female authors in the Netherlands. Karen von Lilienfeld (1520-1589) was an Austrian Renaissance composer and musician who wrote sacred and secular works.
In more recent history, Karen Blixen (1885-1962), a Danish author and baroness, gained international acclaim for her memoir "Out of Africa," which recounted her experiences as a plantation owner in colonial Kenya.
Karen Horney (1885-1952) was a German-American psychoanalyst who made significant contributions to the field of psychoanalytic theory and is considered one of the founders of modern feminist psychology.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Karen
People
Karen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Karen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Karen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Karen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 723,738 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Karen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 474 US residents.
Is Karen a common name?
We classify Karen as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 990,595 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Karen most popular?
The single biggest year for Karen was 1957, when 40,667 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Karen is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Karen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 882,585 people with the name Karen, or 292.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Karen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Karen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Karen appears almost entirely female. Of the 882,576 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Karen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Karen is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.9%) and Black (6.1%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Karen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Karen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.6% (720,135 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Karen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Karen a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Karen in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Karen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Karen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Karen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Karen?
You can see how many people share the name Karen on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.