I don’t normally disagree with vlad but going to make an exception.
Names tell you a lot about a person. Not their personality or character but let’s say someone is called Mohammed: I know that’s a male from a Muslim background. Obviously other names aren’t quite as telling as that but you can usually tell someone’s sex, sometimes country of birth, sometimes religious background, and often approximate age. Names like Jean, Linda, and so on peaked in popularity in the 1950s - can’t imagine a baby Jean today.
And there is a class element. This differs between the United Kingdom and America: in America the middle classes favour names we would associate with a more working class background. America tend to look forwards, while a lot of our wealth and glory is in our past so traditional names tend to dominate the middle classes here.
Karen peaked in popularity in the 60s and 70s, making most Karens in the maybe 45-55 bracket. So that’s point one. Middle aged women are to be mocked.
Obviously it’s a woman’s name. I know someone’s mentioned there being an equivalent for men but I’ve not seen it in anything like the same way I’ve seen Karen ripped into. So middle aged women are to be mocked. Not good.
And then there is a class element. I don’t mean that all Karens are working class but there does tend to be an element of this amongst the more popular names for girls especially. Lindsey, Leanne, Joanne, claire, all peaked in popularity in the 80s. Tbh I really liked Oliver when having ds but decided against it on this basis, that it would become a bit dated.
So working class women of a certain age are fit to be ripped into. It’s not good. It’s a way of silencing women generally because say you point out something contentious like being born male means you are a man - you’re a Karen, and hoots of laughter and derision are OK.
I loathe it.