August 2, 2024
If you ever take a gander at the Social Security Administration’s on-line baby names database (which is fascinating, by the way), you’ll see that names that were popular a generation ago (Pamela, Sharon, Cynthia) have fallen out of favor, while names that were unheard of back in the day (Ava, Mason, Liam) are now hugely popular. Some names (James, Sarah, Michael) are always popular.
I was given the birth name Claude. Claude was never popular.
And it appears that, for fairly obvious reasons, “Karen” is about to join Claude on the “least-favored baby name” list. In the 1950’s, Karen was the 9th most-popular name in the U.S. It is now out of the top 100.
And sinking fast,
Not a single baby was named “Karen” in all of Queensland, Australia last year. Queensland native Karen Phillips laments “I think we’ve had our day.”
Which reminds me of a hilarious joke: The name Lance may not be popular today, but in the Middle Ages, people were named Lance a lot.
wacka wacka wacka…