Goodbye Karen: Ohio woman seeks name change over memes

PLAIN TWP. ‒ Pity the poor 1,469,388 women named Karen in this country.

In the past few years, the name has become synonymous with entitled white privilege and racism, thanks to social media memes. A Karen is a selfish woman, prone to rants, who demands that others behave as she sees fit.

She's mean.

She can be borderline evil.

"And I'm a blonde, too, which doesn't help," said Karen Firestone, a Plain Township woman who admits to be being older than 50, another dooming quality in a TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook world of memes, images and videos that depict middle-aged, inverted bob-cut, fair-haired females who need to speak to the manager.

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Firestone is done with it.

"I tell people I'm one of the nice Karens," she said.

What to do about being a Karen?

Firestone has filed an application to legally change her first name from Karen to Kat. She'll appear in Stark County Probate Judge Dixie Park's court on Feb. 21 to present her case.

"Sometimes when you think about doing something that's bold like this, and you know where to do it and how to do it ... then maybe it's fate," Firestone explained.

Taylor A. Humphrey, a baby name consultant and doula, who splits time between New York and California, said it often makes her sad when people change their names.

"Our identity is so tied to our name ... but we are capable of changing," she said, adding that sometimes change can be positive; a first day of the rest of your life kind of thing.

Jonathan Wynn, a sociology professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst, said social stigmas don't have to come in obvious forms, such as a facial scar.

"In sociology, names are a key part of our identity," he said.

He referred to a post "What's in a Name," he authored on the Everyday Sociology blog in 2020. In it, Wynn pointed out that sociologist Norbert Elias, in "The Society of Individuals," wrote that forenames are individualized, 'I' identities, while surnames signal 'we' identities.

Humphrey, who founded What's in a Baby Name, explained Karen has turned into a disaster name. That's a name gone bad due to events. Much like Katrina, the name of a devastating 2005 hurricane. Or Chad, the male version of Karen.

The negative Karen phenomenon

Firestone had thought long and hard about the name change.

"I even prayed about it," she said.

An Ohio State University graduate, her professional career began in the 1970s as public relations director for the Ohio Department of Energy. She managed public relations for Macy's in California. She did freelance writing and consulting and cared for her parents.

"I'm preparing to go back into the work force," she said.

And that's where the Karen name isn't worth the hassle. Too many times already she's absorbed obligatory 'ha-ha's' from people she meets for the first time.

"About 75% of the people, " Firestone said.

At its peak in 1965, Karen was the third most popular baby name in the U.S., according to information from the Social Security Administration. However, it already was losing traction when it first showed up on Reddit memes six years ago.

In 2017, only 552 babies were named Karen. Three years later, it had dipped to 329. In 2021, the name fell out of the top 1,000 for the first time in nearly a century.

The negative Karen phenomena probably didn't help.

TikToks with the hashtag Karen have racked up 40.4 billion views. On YouTube, millions of people have watched videos with titles such as "Karens in the Wild," "Karens on Camera," "Karens get owned" and "Karens Freak Out."

In the videos, cellphone cameras capture women, dubbed Karens, belittling cashiers who can't properly count change; chasing people from parking spaces; demanding to speak to store managers; making children cry; calling police on noisy neighbors; chastising subway riders who won't give up their seats; and whining about being assaulted.

Kansas State University communications professor Heather Suzanne Woods, a digital media scholar, told The Atlantic in 2020 that a Karen "demands the world exist according to her standards with little regard for others, and she is willing to risk or demean others to achieve her ends."

Still unclear how it all began

The orgin of the satire is unclear.

Some say its roots are in the 2004 film "Mean Girls," in which Karen Smith asked this of Lindsay Lohan's character: "So, if you're from Africa, why are you white?" Others claim it was comedian Dane Cook's routine "The Friend Nobody Likes," in which he explained every group has a Karen and she's always a particular feminine hygiene product.

The meme's popularity has spawned a niche merchandise market for Karen-related products — everything from shirts, coffee mugs, pillows and hats, to Halloween costumes.

Amazon offers plenty of it.

So, does tee shirt palace, a Southfield, Michigan, novelty retailer, whose online store offers an array of Karen goods. Each includes phrases such as "Calm down Karen, it's just my allergies," "I want to speak to the manager," and "Shut up Karen."

It's been a tortuous demise for a once proud name. Most baby-naming websites indicate Karen has Danish origins, and means "pure." It's derived from Katherine.

"We're talking about parents, grandparents, great-grandparents who were named Karen," said Humphrey.

She said Firestone's story reminds her of another name change she learned of a few years ago. In that case, the girl's name was Alexa, the Amazon voice command equivalent of Siri.

Firestone said she's ready for a new start. She has the blessing of both her adult children, as well. She picked "Kat," because it's in the same vein as her given name, Karen.

She suspects her parents had gleaned Karen from that same Katherine base, like Katherine Hepburn.

"My mom was an aspiring actress," she said.

If Firestone's request is approved in court, there will be one less Karen in the U.S. But that's not likely to change data on MyNameStats.com, which calculated there to be 1,469,388 Karens in the country — a figure based on baby name data and actuary tables.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio woman seeks to change name Karen over memes