I always thought Karen came from Planktons computer wife on SpongeBob.
It looks like they tried a lot of different white names before Karen took.
They are doing the same with names for males, Chad, Brad, Steve, here is a vote for the name Darren.
“Personally I call them “Darrens”, since Darren is a name that I associate with middle-aged white men, who often act all privileged, you name it. Darren is also an unattractive name for any man below age 30- It’s getting outdated for sure. And above all, Darren rhymes with Karen!”