[name_m]Hi[/name_m], so I love the name, [name_f]Karen[/name_f], it was my Auntie’s name who died when I was 8 and I loved her to pieces. I thought about using it as a middle name but I love it too much to make it my future daughter’s middle name.
my dad told me that if I used it he would disown me (he didn’t like my Auntie very much).
so do you think [name_f]Karen[/name_f] is unusable or is it fine? I have it with the middle name [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] if that helps.
I don’t know if we know how long the concept of “Karen” as a meme will last but I would not use it right now as a first name, in part because of the meme but in part because it feels quite dated. If I were you I’d either use [name_f]Karen[/name_f] as a middle name or [name_f]Karina[/name_f] as a first name.
Yes
I like [name_f]Karen[/name_f] too, so I thought about that! I feel like that meme is quickly dying and even if you name your daughter [name_f]Karen[/name_f] right this month then it will be entirely faded by the time she’s 6.
Sorry, but you shouldn’t use it!
Maybe it will be usable in the future, but not right now. Sorry! What about a variant like [name_f]Karina[/name_f]?
I hate [name_f]Karina[/name_f], so its a hard no
Agree that right now, [name_f]Karen[/name_f] isn’t usable. Would [name_f]Kara[/name_f] be an option?
I have a bad association with a [name_f]Kara[/name_f]
I would avoid it for the time being. I know that it’s a stretch, but do you like any names that rhyme with it? Maren, Seren, etc?
It’s unusable for me. Without the obvious negative associations, it is also very dated.
Ok it sounds like there are two separate questions here.
First, is [name_f]Karen[/name_f] unusable in general? I think as a first name, yes it’s unusable. As a middle it would be ok though, people rarely go by their middle names.
Secondly, about your dad not wanting you to use the name… I guess it depends on how serious you think he is, why he did not like her, how strong your relationship with your dad is, and how much you care about his opinion. If it seems like he genuinely would take serious measures and possibly even actually disown you for using the name, then you better seriously consider how you would feel if that happened. [name_f]Do[/name_f] you have a good relationship with your dad to begin with, and if you do then would it be worth it to risk jeopardizing that relationship over a name? But if you already have a rocky relationship then maybe you wouldn’t care. Also consider why he really dislikes your aunt so much. It’s easy as a child to overlook people’s flaws but then as an adult you may learn things or start to understand things about people that make you view them completely differently. Did she actually do something horrible, and if so, then is that the type of person you’d actually want to name your child after? But if it’s just dumb family drama then you’d just have to decide what’s most important to you.
I care a lot about my dads opinion, I’m very close to my dad and if he disowned me I would be crushed. I also have no idea why he didn’t like my Aunt. he’s never told me, it could be because she was married to a Buddhist for a bit (my family is very Christian). I think honoring my Aunt is more important.
Well if you don’t want to give up the name but seriously care about your relationship with your dad, then I think the only solution would be to have a serious discussion with him about why he cares so much about you not using the name and how much it would actually truly affect your relationship. Would he seriously disown you or was that an exaggeration? I think those are things you would need to know before you could make a decision.
How about [name_f]Karrie[/name_f] [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f]?
Wow thats pretty drastic of your father…
Personally for me my thought right away is how there’s alot of hate going out to woman named [name_f]Karen[/name_f] at the moment. Very much so through social media… so that could be a problem, and essentially having people make fun of the name through memes/tik toks.
A friend of mine just named her baby [name_f]Maren[/name_f], and even that was getting a bit of bad attention unfortunately.
Other ideas:
Wren/Ren
Cari/ [name_u]Carey[/name_u]
I don’t think it’s usable for several reasons. Is there a middle name or a surname you could use instead?
Some alternatives:
[name_f]Karina[/name_f]
[name_f]Kyra[/name_f]
Keira/Kiera
[name_f]Katherine[/name_f]
[name_u]Marin[/name_u]
[name_f]Maren[/name_f]
[name_f]Karen[/name_f] is now a widely known label attributed to a very unpleasant and often times malicious sort of person. Knowing this I would not recommend you saddle a child with it.
I am not usually one to associate names, but I don’t think [name_f]Karen[/name_f] is usable right now. I do think in several years the memes will have died down and it would be safe. [name_f]My[/name_f] mom who has no social media and does not
“Keep up with the times” so to speak told my sister not to be a [name_f]Karen[/name_f] the other day….so I think the association has stretched to multiple generations unfortunately 
It seems like there’s a couple of reasons not to use the name- the fact that your dad doesn’t like it and the modern associations with it. If you really love it and want to use it you obviously can. Personally, I think I would search for a similar sounding name or use it as a middle.