Karen

Karen is a Danish form of Katherine. Exactly where Katherine comes from or what it means is so widely disagreed on that I've come to the conclusion that no one has anything worthy of being called a clue. Karen was brought to America by Scandinavian settlers, according to Ask Oxford, and appeared in the U.S. top 1000 in the 1930's, and rose all the way to the #4 position in the 1960's. Its use has declined somewhat since then, but Karen is still one of the top 200 names in the U.S. In Britain the name Karen wasn't used until the 1950's. Karen doesn't offer much in the way of nickname versatility, and it doesn't hold the appeal of "new and original" that it once did, but it's still a quite pretty name with no obvious bad associations, so if you really like the name there are no good reasons not to use it for your baby. Karen has also very occasionally been used as a boy's name, actually making it into the top 1000 in the 1950's and 1960's. In this case it is probably considered to be a short form of the Armenian male name Karekin, (and probably should have been spelt Karin.)