Karen
Karen is outside the top 1,000 in 2024, with 184 births. Its best rank was 3rd, in 1965.
- Rank in 2024
- —outside the top 1,000
- Births in 2024
- 1840.01% of girls
- Peak year
- 195740,590 births
- Best rank
- #3in 1965
- Since 1881
- 990,595people given the name
The story in the numbers
987,811 girls have been named Karen in the United States since 1881, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1957, with 40,590 births — 2.0% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 184 births in 2024, against 40,590 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1959, and the 1950s alone account for 34%. It has spent 105 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 49 of them in the top 100 and 18 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 2,784 boys have also been given it, 0.28% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Karen | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 49 | |
| 1890s | 79 | |
| 1900s | 98 | |
| 1910s | 304 | |
| 1920s | 564 | |
| 1930s | 16,692 | |
| 1940s | 167,699 | |
| 1950s | 332,533 | |
| 1960s | 286,054 | |
| 1970s | 95,173 | |
| 1980s | 34,917 | |
| 1990s | 24,515 | |
| 2000s | 20,608 | |
| 2010s | 7,357 | |
| 2020s | 1,169 |
In 1957, its biggest year
Karen was the 5th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1957 were Mary, Susan, Linda, Debra and Karen. See all of 1957.
Names that rose and fell with Karen
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Lynnpeak 1956
- Brendapeak 1957
- Sheilapeak 1962
- Gaylapeak 1954
- Lynpeak 1957
- Rendapeak 1955
- Ronnapeak 1963
- Karanpeak 1956
Other spellings in the data
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.