Catherine
Masculine
Catherine is given to girls far more often — 667,789 girls against 1,822 boys since 1880. See Catherine as a girl name
A woman with this name told a pope to go home and he went. She was a dyer's daughter from Siena with no education to speak of, she dictated letters to the most powerful men in Europe telling them what they ought to do, and one of the things she told the pope was that he belonged in Rome rather than in France. He returned within two years of meeting her.
How old is the name Catherine?
Catherine first appears in US birth records in 1884 — 141 years ago. The typical Catherine alive today was born around 1949, making them about 76 years old. About 900 people named Catherine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Catherine most popular?
Catherine peaked in 1884, reaching #764 nationally. See the whole 1884 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Catherine
The story of Catherine
Six English queens carried the name and three of them were married to the same man. He worked through them in the space of about a decade — one divorced after twenty-four years, one beheaded at nineteen or twenty, one who survived him and remarried within months — and the name accordingly runs through the most turbulent stretch of English royal history at a rate no other manages. Two further queens carried it before and one after. It is the only name to have been on the English throne that many times and to have gone so badly so often.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The name has no recoverable original meaning. The purity association came later, by resemblance rather than descent, and the earliest forms do not support it.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katharina
- Catherine
Related forms: Catherine · Caterina · Catalina · Caitlín
Pronouncing Catherine
KATH-ur-in
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The c is hard, as it is in every form of the name, so the two spellings sound identical.
Nicknames for Catherine
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
- 1884
- Most boys named
- 198944 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #764reached in 1884
- Change vs 2004
- −54.5%5 in 2007, from 11
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.
Catherine in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Catherine in French — same name
- Caterina in Italian — same name
- Catalina in Spanish — same name
- Caitlín in Irish — same name
Catherines among us
people named Catherine 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
Catherine 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 has been in continuous use for well over a thousand years.
- The short forms are numerous and span several registers and languages.
- It is recognized across Europe with minimal change of spelling.
- The k spelling is equally standard and the choice is queried for life.
- No meaning can be given honestly, whatever other pages assert.
- Its peak was early enough to give the name some period weight.
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Catherine
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Catherines are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Catherine are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Catherine in 2025?
- Catherine is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Catherine with classmates?
- Catherine will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Catherine? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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