Never mind ‘Karen’ - ‘Kevin’ is the name you want to worry about

Names hold meanings and if you’re called Kevin, it’s not going to be a smooth sailing 2026 now that the name has become affiliated with a specific meaning.

While most baby names are fine and go on to have no implications to the person as they grow up, for Kevin's... it’s going the way of the Karen.

Now, if you don’t know what I mean by that, I’ll hand you over to exhibit A: the Karen meme.

In 2017, the name Karen was first used as an insult on Reddit, and after a woman went viral for her crash out in Central Park, New York over the requirements for birdwatching in 2020, it exploded.

Essentially, to be a Karen means to be a white middle-aged woman with a bobbed cut that’s shorter in the back, who is entitled and sticks her nose in other people’s business.

Usually, you’ll find her asking to speak to the manager of a shop to complain about something daft. Karen is also usually racist targeting people who aren't white, and because of this the name association surged during the BLM movement.

Move over Karen (Getty Stock Images)

Of course, not everyone called Karen is like that, but the generalisation occurred as a way to insult mean women with a generic female name of someone of that age range.

Similarly, Kevin has now had the same thing happen and while the meaning is different, it’s still not too great.

Over on Reddit, TikTok and Medium, people have been discussing the rising trend of calling people certain names and attaching a meaning to them.

When it comes to a ‘Kevin’, it apparently means ‘anything bad’, per a TikTok clip, while Reddit shares that a Kevin is basically a stereotypical sitcom husband.

The thread 'StoriesAboutKevins' explains: "A Kevin is someone who consistently or greatly shows a complete lack of intelligence through incompetence of social and societal norms, or is purposefully antagonistic in their poor decision making. Remember the kid in your class who would constantly get in trouble for really dumb things? He was probably a Kevin. Family members, friends, coworkers, and classmates can all become Kevins.”

Think Peter Griffin from Family Guy, Homer Simpson from The Simpsons, Ray from Everybody Loves Raymond and... Kevin from Kevin Can F**k Himself.

But it doesn’t stop with Karen and Kevin. In fact, many names have been given an alter ego thanks to pop culture, movies and internet culture.

Kevin is your average dumb man (Getty Stock Images)

For example:

• Chad: Super confident alpha male that is generally used in Incel culture to talk about men who easily socialise with women.
• Stacy: A cheerleader type who goes hand-in-hand with Chad.
• Becky: A privileged and basic type of person. Might see them wearing Uggs and drinking Starbucks.
• Kyle: A raging gamer teenager with anger problems who drinks Monster energy drinks and punches holes through the wall.
• Brad: The stereotypical ‘jock’ type in American teen movies.
• Felicia: Popularised by 1995’s Friday, ‘Bye, Felicia’ was used as a dismissive send-off for someone asking for favours.

There’s also Jessica, who is apparently the Millennial version of Karen, and David is the male version.

There is probably a hell of a lot more names to add to the list, but this is all you’re getting for now.