The name ‘Karen’ has been causing a lot of controversies recently. What started as a regular name quickly became associated with a lot of negative character features. So much so that some people named Karen are feeling badgered and stereotyped.

So it’s no wonder that some parents are having second thoughts about naming their kids Karen. One of these people is redditor NotKarensDad. He asked his fellow Reddit users if he was a jerk for firmly saying ‘no’ to his wife wanting to name their daughter Karen after her mother. After some evaluations and back-and-forths, the AITA community made their decision. And NotKarensDad later had a wholesome update for all of us. Read on, dear Pandas!

To learn more about possible bullying because of names, Bored Panda reached out to Kidscape. The CEO of Kidscape, Lauren Seager-Smith, told Bored Panda that giving your child an unusual name, or if they have a name that takes on a certain significance for whatever reason, can make the child more likely to be a target of bullying. Scroll down for the rest of her insights.

A dad asked the AITA community on Reddit if he was a jerk for refusing to name his daughter Karen

The dad later came back with a wholesome update

Image credits: NotKarensDad

“With some names, it may be more obvious why children would find them fascinating or amusing—with others, this will be out of your hands, so while you may want to take reasonable precautions in naming your child the focus should always be on empowering children to recognize and respond to bullying behavior,” said Lauren.

She added that parents should never underestimate the impact of bullying and ought to find ways to make their children feel proud of who they are.

We spoke all about Karen memes earlier with Matt Schimkowitz, Know Your Meme’s Senior Editor, who explained the phenomenon (and the dangers when it’s misused) to Bored Panda.

“As [the meme] grows from a parody of a common social experience of someone demanding to speak to a manager to a statement about white privilege, the stakes over the meaning of the meme grow as well. So I think that users of the meme should be cognizant that what they’re meme-ing might not be their intent anymore. It’s very possible that the meme could grow even farther to exhibit misogynistic tendencies, which are somewhat already present,” Matt explained.

“I could see those with sexist beliefs using Karen as a catchall for all women, which is where things get really ugly and suddenly ‘Karen,’ a meme we all enjoyed and used with abandon is connected to something many would find offensive,” he explained some of the dangers of the Karen meme and how it could be misused in some cases.

“The meme’s meaning will change depending on who is meme-ing it and what their intent is, and that could alter how we all view Karen. As I tell most people, you should always meme with caution. These images, nicknames and jokes frequently have unknown origins and could be connected to some really hateful areas of the internet.”

While it’s hard to know the exact origin of the Karen meme, Matt believes that the most convincing theory is Dane Cook’s 2005 comedy special, “The Friend That Nobody Likes.”

“This is one of the earliest examples that we have to using a specific name to stand in for a whole type of person, and it’s a comedic trope that we’ve seen dozens of times over the last 15 years,” Matt said.

“Every group has a Karen and she is always a bag of douche,” Cook said during his stand-up routine. “And when she’s not around, you just look at each other and say, ‘God, Karen, she’s such a douchebag!’”

Here’s what people thought of the redditor’s story

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