Head to head · Girls' names
Iliana vs Kathryn
#730 vs #729 in 2025
Kathryn is a whisker ahead (#729 vs #730 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Kathryn is stepping back from its peak, Iliana is climbing the charts fast. On momentum, Iliana has the edge.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Kathryn leads 5 measures of 6; Iliana leads 1.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Iliana —, Kathryn #93 — Kathryn higher
- 1890s: Iliana —, Kathryn #90 — Kathryn higher
- 1900s: Iliana —, Kathryn #84 — Kathryn higher
- 1910s: Iliana —, Kathryn #66 — Kathryn higher
- 1920s: Iliana —, Kathryn #83 — Kathryn higher
- 1930s: Iliana —, Kathryn #108 — Kathryn higher
- 1940s: Iliana —, Kathryn #70 — Kathryn higher
- 1950s: Iliana #4676, Kathryn #55 — Kathryn higher
- 1960s: Iliana #2130, Kathryn #91 — Kathryn higher
- 1970s: Iliana #1781, Kathryn #89 — Kathryn higher
- 1980s: Iliana #1238, Kathryn #50 — Kathryn higher
- 1990s: Iliana #863, Kathryn #76 — Kathryn higher
- 2000s: Iliana #758, Kathryn #137 — Kathryn higher
- 2010s: Iliana #815, Kathryn #337 — Kathryn higher
- 2020s: Iliana #849, Kathryn #648 — Kathryn higher
Kathryn stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Iliana | Kathryn |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | — | #93 |
| 1890s | — | #90 |
| 1900s | — | #84 |
| 1910s | — | #66 |
| 1920s | — | #83 |
| 1930s | — | #108 |
| 1940s | — | #70 |
| 1950s | #4676 | #55 |
| 1960s | #2130 | #91 |
| 1970s | #1781 | #89 |
| 1980s | #1238 | #50 |
| 1990s | #863 | #76 |
| 2000s | #758 | #137 |
| 2010s | #815 | #337 |
| 2020s | #849 | #648 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Iliana
Usually read as a form of Helen; in Greek and Bulgarian use, tied instead to Elijah or to the sun
Two serious roads meet at this spelling. As a variant of Romanian and Spanish Ileana, it belongs to the Elena–Helen family, whose Greek root Helenē has itself never been settled, though it is often connected to a word for torch or light. In Greek and Bulgarian, Iliana is instead the feminine counterpart of Ilias/Ilia — that is, Elijah, from Hebrew 'my God is Yahweh' — and is also linked by Greek speakers to helios, the sun. Both readings are genuine; neither cancels the other.
Helenē → Helena → Elena → Ileana → Iliana
How it traveled
The oldest layer is Greek Helenē, which passed into Latin and then spread through Europe as Elena and Helena. Romanian reshaped it into Ileana, the form that carries the fairy-tale princess Ileana Cosânzeana of Romanian folk tales, and Spanish took up Ileana as well.
Kathryn
unknown, though long read as pure
The oldest form of the name is Greek and its meaning has never been recovered — it may not be Greek at all, and the earliest spellings do not contain a th. What happened is that medieval scholars connected it to katharos, the Greek word for clean or pure, and rewrote the spelling to match the etymology they preferred. The letter stayed and the etymology did not survive scrutiny. Kathryn preserves that mistake faithfully while dropping the ending that would show where the name actually came from.
a Greek name of unrecovered meaning → medieval scholars insert a th to match a preferred etymology → Katherine, Catherine and Katharine in English use → Kathryn appears as an American contraction → an American peak at the middle of the century
How it traveled
Kathryn Bigelow spent twenty years making films about men doing dangerous work — surfers robbing banks, a bomb disposal team in Iraq — before becoming the first woman to win the Academy Award for directing, in a year when the film she beat was made by her former husband. She had trained as a painter and come to film through the art world, and she has been consistently uninterested in being described as a woman director, which is a position she has had to restate in nearly every interview she has given since.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Iliana
ee-lee-AH-nah
Four syllables with the stress on the third. English speakers who read the first letter as a short i say ill-ee-AH-na, and both are heard in the US. Greek speakers place the stress the same way; Romanian Ileana shifts slightly to ee-LYAH-na.
- Lia — The most portable short form, and a full given name in its own right in Italian, Spanish and English.
- Ili — Informal, taken from the front of the name; sometimes written Illy or Ily.
- Ana — Drawn from the ending; stands alone as a given name across Spanish, Portuguese and Balkan languages.
- Nana — Household-level nickname, mostly used within families rather than at school.
- Also Elle.
Kathryn
KATH-rin
Two syllables in American speech, where Katherine usually has three. That compression is what the spelling records: the ending was already being swallowed, and Kathryn simply wrote down what people were saying.
- Kate — The oldest and steadiest short form, and a complete name for at least three centuries.
- Kathy — The mid-century American form, closely dated to the years the full name peaked.
- Kit — An old English short form, unisex, and much rarer than it deserves to be.
- Rin — Available only in this spelling, and modern in a way the rest are not.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Iliana if you want…
- a name on the way upup 161 places on the charts in five years
- a name with more sound in itIliana runs 4 syllables, Kathryn 2
- a newer arrivalIliana entered the US charts in 1955
- a name that feels very nowIliana is climbing the charts fast
Choose Kathryn if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsKathryn is stepping back from its peak
- a name with fewer syllablesKathryn is 2 syllables to Iliana's 4
- a long American recordKathryn was already in use when US records began in 1880
- a name that ages quietlyan estimated 12% chance of feeling dated by 2040, against 50% for Iliana
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Iliana
Strengths
- The ending it shares with Juliana, Adriana and Eliana means most people can spell it after hearing it once, even if they have never met it before.
- Works unchanged or near-unchanged in Spanish, Romanian, Greek and Bulgarian — useful in a family or a school that spans more than one language.
- Several ready-made short forms, including Lia and Ana, which are established given names on their own.
To consider
- The near-twins are the real cost: Eliana, Ileana, Ilyana and Iliana all circulate, and Eliana is the more common of them. Expect to spell it and to be called Eliana occasionally for life.
- The two stress patterns — ee-lee-AH-nah and ill-ee-AH-na — both exist in the US, so you may end up correcting the first vowel as often as the spelling.
- It has been gaining rather than fading, so it is likely to be somewhat better known by the time a child born now reaches school than it is now.
Kathryn
Strengths
- It offers the largest set of usable short forms of almost any English name — Kate, Kathy, Kit, Katie.
- It has been in continuous use for eight hundred years without ever becoming a costume.
- The spelling is distinctly American and distinctly twentieth-century while the name itself is neither.
To consider
- There are at least six accepted spellings of this name and she will spell hers out every time.
- The compressed form is closely associated with the middle of the last century in a way the fuller spellings are not.
- The meaning everybody will tell her — pure — is an old mistake rather than a fact.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
How each is likely to age
Iliana
50%chance Iliana feels dated by 2040
Iliana is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
Kathryn
12%chance Kathryn feels dated by 2040
Kathryn has held the top-100 across 11 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A reading of where each name sits on the long naming cycle — computed, not measured, and explained on the data page.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Iliana and Kathryn in full.
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Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
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More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists these names appear on
- The names with the most spellings
- Midcentury modern: tomorrow's comeback bets
- Science-fiction names in real use
- Names that belong entirely to the 1950s
- all guides
Where Iliana and Kathryn each sit in the library — alternatives in the same style, ranked by the same records.
Iliana or Kathryn — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Iliana or Kathryn?
- Kathryn, in 2025: Kathryn ranked #729 with 381 babies; Iliana ranked #730 with 380 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Iliana or Kathryn?
- Iliana. Over the last five years Iliana moved up 161 places; Kathryn moved down 204 places.
- Which is the older name, Iliana or Kathryn?
- Iliana entered the US charts in 1955; Kathryn was already in use when US records began in 1880. On the American record, Kathryn is the older name.
- How many people are named Iliana and Kathryn?
- About 13,000 people named Iliana are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 321,000 people named Kathryn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Ilianas or Kathryns in the classroom?
- Iliana will almost certainly be the only one in school. Kathryn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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