Babies named Karen in the US

As feral hog populations have expanded into more US states, fewer babies have been named Karen, a negative correlation of -0.982 that suggests either that hogs are driving Karens to extinction or that both trends measure the same unstoppable expansion—hogs across the landscape, and cultural memes across the internet—with opposite effects on their respective naming conventions. The hogs spread, the Karens vanish, and the chart draws a line between invasive species and endangered nomenclature.

Feral hogs expanded from about 35 states to all 48 contiguous states between 2004 and 2020. Karen babies declined from about 2,500 per year to under 300 as the name became a pejorative meme. One spreads (hogs), the other retreats (Karen), and the negative correlation is driven by their opposite trajectories across nine overlapping years. The hogs know nothing of memes, and the internet knows little of hogs, but both forces are relentless and expanding.

Nine years of more hogs and fewer Karens is the most ecologically absurd correlation in the dataset: one invasive species expanding (hogs) while one cultural species contracts (the name Karen). Both trends are unstoppable, both are driven by forces larger than any individual, and both have made certain parts of America harder to navigate. The hog roots. The Karen retreats. The chart notes both extinctions.