Catelynn
Feminine · “Little Cateline”
Catelynn ends in a diminutive that has been misread as a fashionable ending — in Irish the last syllable means little, so the name is little Cateline, and Cateline is French.
How old is the name Catelynn?
Catelynn first appears in US birth records in 1988 — 37 years ago. The typical Catelynn alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 800 people named Catelynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Catelynn most popular?
Catelynn peaked in 2010, reaching #2589 nationally. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Cateline to Catelynn
The story of Catelynn
The final syllable is doing grammatical work. Irish makes affectionate forms with a small suffix, the same one that gives Sinead and Roisin their endings, and it means something like little or dear. English speakers meeting the Irish name read that syllable as the fashionable ending that sounds identical, and spelled it accordingly — which is why this family now has spellings ending in lyn, lynn and linn, all of them writing an Irish diminutive as though it were an American one. The doubled letters are the newest layer on top of that.
Meaningscholars disagree
Little Cateline
The Irish name was borrowed from the Norman French form of Catherine and given an Irish diminutive ending. Catherine's own meaning is unsettled. So the name is a diminutive of a borrowing of a name whose origin is unknown.
How the name formed
- Cateline
- Caitlin
- Catelynn
Related forms: Caitlin · Cateline
Pronouncing Catelynn
KATE-lin
Two syllables, stress at the front. The doubled letters are not audible.
Nicknames for Catelynn
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1988
- Most girls named
- 201070 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2589reached in 2010
- Change vs 2022
- 0.0%6 in 2023, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Catelynn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caitlin in Irish — related form
- Cateline in French — related form
Catelynns among us
people named Catelynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Catelynn sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is read correctly on sight, which the Irish spelling is not.
- It splits into two halves that each stand alone.
- The family behind it is one of the largest in Europe.
- Caitlin, Katelyn and Kaitlynn are all in heavy use and hers will be written as one of them.
- The doubled letters add nothing audible.
- The Irish ending is a diminutive, which is not what the spelling suggests.
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Catelynn
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Catelynns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Catelynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Catelynn in 2025?
- Catelynn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Catelynn with classmates?
- Catelynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Catelynn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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