Gen Z Says “Jessica” Is The New “Karen” And People Have Strong Feelings About It

“It kinda tracks 😂. As a millennial, thinking back on the mean girls, quite a few were named Jessica. Ashley, on the other hand, was always the name of the popular mean girls in movies and TV, but not necessarily in real life (in my experience).

For real, though, I think it’s just because these were popular names in their times (boomer era Karens, millennial era Jessicas), so when you have a lot of people with the same name, you’re more likely to encounter more unpleasant people with those names by default. Like for Gen-Z, the mean girl name in my head is Madison, but the reality is that Madison is just an extremely popular Gen-Z name.”

—jainelaine