From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Karen is a feminine name, derived from the Danish short form of Katherine.

The name Karen was one of the top ten names for girls born in the United States during the 1950s and 1960s, peaking as the 3rd most popular girl's name in 1965.^[1]

However, in Armenian, Karen is a masculine name but unrelated to the feminine name, it is derived from the name a prince of Caren of Persian origin, having his origins probably from the name of House of Karen, aristocratic family, one of so-called Parthian clans.

It can also be a surname.

Famous people named Karen

• Karen Allen (born 1951), American actress
• Karen Anderson (born 1971), Jamaican squash player
• Karen Armstrong (born 1944), British author on comparative religion
• Karen Blixen (1885 - 1962), Danish author under the pen name Isak Dinesen
• Karen Carpenter (1950 - 1983), American singer and drummer in the duo The Carpenters
• Karen Clark-Sheard (born 1960), American gospel singer and sonwriterer member of the Clark Sisters
• Karen Dunne (born 1967), American track and road cyclist
• Karen Elson (born 1979), British model and singer
• Karen Horning (born 1966), Peruvian breaststroke swimmer
• Karen Kain (born 1951), Canadian ballerina, currently artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada
• Karen Killilea (born 1940), subject of two books by her mother, Marie Killilea
• Karen Kingsbury Christian fiction author
• Karen Kurreck (born 1962), American road cyclist
• Karen LaFace (born 1966), American diver
• Karen McDougal (born 1971), American model, actress and "Playmate of the month"
• Karen Ann Quinlan (1954 - 1985), central figure in an American right-to-die controversy
• Karen Smith (Australian) (born 1979), Australian field hockey player
• Karen Smith (New Zealand) (born 1970), New Zealand field hockey player
• Karen Smyers (born 1961), American triathlete
• Karen Taylor (comedian) (born 1976), British comedienne
• Anna Karen (born 1936), British actress

Armenian men named Karen

• Karen Asrian (1980 - 2008), Armenian chess grandmaster
• Karen Demirchyan (1932 - 1999), Armenian politician
• Karen Khachaturian (born 1920), Armenian/Russian composer
• Karen Shakhnazarov (born 1952), Russian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter of Armenian origins

Fictional people named Karen

• Karen Hayes, on the television series 24
• Karen Filippelli, on the television series The Office
• Karen Mizuki, in J.A.K.Q. Dengekitai
• Karen Onodera from Please Twins!
• Karen, in Sister Princess
• Karen Hill, in Goodfellas
• Karen Sisco, an American television series, eponymous character played by Carla Gugino
• Karen Walker, in the television series Will & Grace
• Karen Cooper Fairgate MacKenzie, on the television series Knots Landing
• Karen Smith, in the motion picture Mean Girls
• Karen Collins, wife of protagonist in Irving Wallace's novel The R Document
• Karen, Plankton's computer wife in the Nickelodeon series SpongeBob SquarePants and in the movie
• Karen, cartoon character assisting Frosty to the North Pole in Frosty the Snowman
• Karen Darling, on the television series Dirty Sexy Money
• Karen Pelly, from the Canadian series Corner Gas

Other

• Karen languages
• Karen people
• Tropical Storm Karen

References

1. ^ Davidson, Andrew (2007), Population Statistics for Karen, Raleigh, NC: nameplayground.com, http://www.nameplayground.com/Karen  

From Wikitravel

Kayin State (Karen State) is in Myanmar.

• Hpa-an, also known as Pa-an - the capital

• Myawaddy - only accessible to foreigners from Mae Sot in Tak Province, northern Thailand

• Payathonzu - only accessible to foreigners via Three Pagodas Pass from Kanchanaburi Province, central Thailand

Get in

About 7 hr by car from Yangon.

From LoveToKnow 1911

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Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

English

Wikipedia has an article on:

Karen

Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From Danish Karen.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈkaɹən/
• Rhymes: -ærən

Proper noun

Karen

1. A female given name. First taken up as a given name in the U.S.A., and popular in the English-speaking world from the 1950s to the 1970s.
   • 1878 Celia Thaxter, Drift-Weed, Houghton, Osgood,1878, page 28 ("Karen"):

     Left you a lover in that far land, / O Karen sad, that you pine so long! / Would I could unravel and understand / That sorrowful, sweet Norwegian song!

   • 1918 Cecily Ullman Sidgwick, Karen, W.Collins, 1918, page 12:

     I was not called Karen after Hans Andersen's dancing girl, but after a Danish friend of my mother's who married an Englishman and was my godmother. So much for our family affairs.

Etymology 2

From Burmese ကရင် (ka-reng), “‘wild, low-caste man’”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /kəˈɹɛn/

Proper noun

Karen

1. A group of languages of Myanmar and Thailand.

External links

Ethnologue report on the Karen languages

Etymology 3

Proper noun

Karen

1. A male given name, transliteration of the Armenian (Կարեն).

Anagrams

• Anagrams of aeknr
• anker
• naker

Danish

Proper noun

Karen

1. A female given name, a medieval variant of Katharina ( =Catherine).

German

Alternative spellings

• Caren

Proper noun

Karen

1. A female given name borrowed from Danish Karen.

Norwegian

Proper noun

Karen

1. A female given name of Danish origin.