Comments for the name Karen (1)

Karen means "pure maiden".

May also be traced back to the Hebrew name 'Keren', which means "horn", and appears several times in that form in the Old Testament.

Also the name of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's lead singer, Karen Olzarek (Karen O.)

Karen Kingsbury is a popular Christian author.

Actress Karen Allen is a famous bearer.

I personally know (work with closely) eight Karens! We have had to come up with nicknames for all of them so we know which we are referring to (or say their last name too). They are all in between 40 & 50 years old.

Karen Carpenter (of the 70's pop duo The Carpenters) was a famous bearer.

Karen Kain is a famous bearer of this name. She's a famous and ground-breaking ballerina who now teaches other dancers at the National Ballet of Canada.

Karen Elson is a top fashion model and married to Jack White of the band The White Stripes.

Karen Mülder was a great top mopdel from the 80's (Dutch).

Karen, Sharon and Darren would be good names for triplets.

Keren is the Hebrew word for Ray (of light). It's a very popular Israeli female name.

The mad hilarious character in Will and Grace is called Karen Walker played by Megan Mullally.

My Danish aunt pronounced it KAH-ren. I've also known German-speaking people (Karin was their preferred spelling) who said it: ka-RIN.

Blah! This name is so typical and overused. It makes me think of a middle-aged woman.

It sounds like a middle-aged housewife's name.

There are authors named Karen Harper, Karen Kingsbury, Karen Robards and Karen Rose.

Karen Marie Moning is an author.

Karen Brewer was the main character in the children's book series "Babysitters Club Little Sister".

To me, Karen sounds like the name of an annoying girl who tags along. Of course, I could be influenced by the Dane Cook routine, lol.

I think this is such a cute name, but the problem is that it sounds really dated now and makes me think of a middle-aged woman.

This is a name that has grown on me. I don't personally know one, but I like the name since it's short. If you really look at the name long enough, and forget about its past popularity, it could work.

I'm sure it's pronounced differently, but apparently in Japanese, "Karen" can mean "lovely", "cute", "oppression (e.g. taxation)", "poor", "pitiful", or "sweet".

Or at least, according to this, it is. http://www.freedict.com/onldict/jap.html

This name, for me, is a name for all ages. My best friend, who is Karen and is fourteen, has this name. My grandma who is fifty-something also has Karen, and they both go well with the name Karen. It's an awesome name!

'Ker-en'? I have always pronounced it 'Kaah-ren.' But, then again, my Brazilian cousin is called this and she pronounces in 'Kah-reen.'

Karen, singer of Raison Detre.

I object to those who think this name is for a boring middle aged housewife. My friends would all agree that although I am 39, I am youthful and a lot of fun.

Beautiful and gentle. Listen to it without care and feel the rich simplicity of it.

I am a athletic teenage Karen. I like this name becase you hardly hear it used in my age group, so it feels special to have a name that you don't hear everyday. I think that this name will become more popular in a few years.

Karen in the movie "Leave It to Beaver" was Wally's girlfriend.

"Karen" is a short story written by the Norwegian author Alexander Kielland prior to 1882, when it was published. The main character is a beautiful young girl named Karen who workes in an inn (weird sentence!). She falls in love with the, er, mailman (he did carry mail, but was a far more important than mailmen of today), and becomes pregnant. When she overhears one of the costumers telling his friend that the mailman is happily married, she drowns herself in the mire behind the inn. The story is cleverly written, and is available in English here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14593/14593-h/14593-h.htm#KAREN

This name seems quite middle aged and youthful at the same time. It seems less chavvy than the rhyming Sharon and more suitable for a child than the similar sounding Carol.

Karen was the name of the main character in "The Red Shoes," a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. Her red shoes will not let her stop dancing as a punishment for her vanity. In the end her feet are cut off and she becomes a very humble, religious person.

I'd really wish every single website about names did some actual research (like Behind the Name) and stopped stating that the meaning of Katherine and its variants is "pure." The meaning of the original name is very much uncertain, and if did originate from the Greek "katharos", it would be more appropriate to attach its meaning to the more literal sense of the word: catharsis.

Karen Blixen, also called Isak Dinesen, the author of Out of Africa. She ran a coffee plantation in Kenya by herself for years.

This is my mum's name. It's simple and straightforward and suits her very much. I have known a couple of other people with the same name, but it doesn't seem too common these days for kids to be called this.

This is my mum's name and half my other friends' mums' names so it must have been popular when she was born. That might have been why she gave me a name with freak pronunciation so I wouldn't be Emily 5 in my class, lol that's not my name though. :)

I'm surprised at how much I'm beginning to like this name. I knew several Karens growing up (in the 90s), but they were all adults--none in my generation. Well, except for one Indian girl, Kiran, who'd had her name misread as "Karin" by so many that she just had her friends call her Karen. (Which is a shame, because Kiran is a beautiful name.)
Anyway... I think this is a great name. It's versatile--simple enough for a child, has enough spunk for adulthood--and has a nice sound. (And no, I don't picture a middle-aged housewife. In fact, I see Karen as a modern businesswoman.)

Lovely but retro! Well this is my mom's name!

Terrible, boring name. I don't understand the appeal of it to so many people.

Karen O, lead singer of the band, Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Karen Gillan, actress who is best known for her role as Amy Pond on Doctor Who.

An awesome nom-de-plume for Karen would be Sharon. Because then if someone found out her identity, they could say "Sharon is Karen!"

This name is firm but not too hard, and has a nice ring to it.

Karen is the name of Plankton's computer wife on Spongebob Squarepants.

Karen is also an ethnic group living in Myanmar (Burma) and Thailand.

Karen is the Dark-type Elite Four member in Pokemon Gold and Silver, as well as in the remakes. She's one of my favorite characters in the series.