Given Name is a storytelling podcast that explores the meaning, memory, and cultural power behind the names we carry. Hosted by sociologist Dr. Shanae, each episode invites guests to slow down and share the story behind their first name — the lineage, the jokes, the mispronunciations, the intentions, and the joy.
Karen (@KarenSD) knows exactly what people mean when they say “a Karen.” She also knows they’re not talking about her. 😂
This week, I sit down with Karen—also known as KSD, a nickname she picked up when two Karens worked in the same office and somebody needed a way to tell them apart.
What follows feels a little like a comedy sketch and a lot like good conversation. We talk about how Karen’s name was chosen, family traditions, the cultural stereotype now attached to her name, and the assumptions people make before they ever really know us.
We also make space for a more thoughtful conversation about race, names, allyship, and what it means for Karen, a white woman, to share space in a project that predominantly explores Black names and Black identity.
It’s funny, warm, curious, and very Given Name.
Because sometimes the question isn’t just “What’s your name?”
It’s “What did you assume when you heard it?”
28 Sept 2026
Chosen for Clarity
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Karen (@karenrunsthings) McFarlane's father chose her name on purpose. He wanted her to have less friction in the world than an ethnic name would bring. It worked. Mostly.
Karen is Jamaican, a marketing professional, podcast host of The E Word, and the voice behind the LinkedIn newsletter Better on Purpose (www.linkedin.com/in/karenmcfarlane). Her name means pure. And she carries it that way.
We talk about the Karen trope, which she is genuinely unbothered by because she knows they are not talking about her. We get into Blaren, the concept of the Black Karen, which she has also left on the table. And we talk about what happens when you sound one way on paper and the room recalibrates when you walk in.
Her name was chosen for clarity. She turned it into a brand.
This is part one of two. Same name. Very different stories.
21 Sept 2026
Strength of a Stone
(The whole episode is worth it. But find 41:41.)
Shauntelle's first name is my middle name. Her middle name is my first name, spelled differently. We are name dopplegangers and this conversation felt like it.
She grew up in Arkansas as the only Shauntelle in a sea of Channels and C/Shantels, with a name spelled exactly as it sounds. Her name means stone. Strength. Rock. And once we started pulling on that thread, what it means to carry a name rooted in strength, and what happens when that name is called, the conversation went somewhere neither of us expected. When someone calls Shauntelle's name, they are literally calling for strength and she comes as a stone to answer.
This one feels like good kitchen table talk. Warm, easy, and then suddenly very deep.
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
4.7 / 5
3 ratings
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