Cathi
Feminine · “pure”
Cathi uses the c that Latin had and the i that the nineteen-sixties had. It is the shortest way anyone has found to write a short form of a very long name, and every letter in it is doing something: the c places it, the th carries a false etymology, and the i dates it.
How old is the name Cathi?
Cathi first appears in US birth records in 1942 — 83 years ago. The typical Cathi alive today was born around 1960, making them about 65 years old. About 2,200 people named Cathi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Cathi most popular?
Cathi peaked in 1958, reaching #796 nationally. See the whole 1958 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Cathi
The story of Cathi
The th is the interesting letter, because it is a piece of wishful thinking made permanent. The original Greek name had a plain t; medieval scholars, who thought the name came from katharos, pure, inserted an h to make the connection visible, and every English spelling has carried it since. Cathi keeps that fossil and drops everything else — three syllables of the full name, the ending, the final e — leaving five letters of which two record an argument from the fifteenth century that turned out to be wrong.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure
The reading was attached to the Katherine names centuries after they were in use, on the strength of a Greek word they resemble. The th in every English spelling is there to support that reading and is not original.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Catherine
- Cathi
Pronouncing Cathi
KATH-ee
Two syllables with the weight at the front. Every spelling of this short form is said identically.
Nicknames for Cathi
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
- 1942
- Most girls named
- 1961162 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #796reached in 1958
- Change vs 1988
- −58.3%5 in 1990, from 12
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.
Cathis among us
people named Cathi 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
Cathi 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 said correctly by everyone on first hearing.
- It serves the whole Katherine family, which gives a family options.
- Five letters, which is as short as this name gets.
- Cathy and Kathy are both commoner and will be written instead.
- It reads as a familiar form, and formal settings will look for something longer.
- The bare i ending dates the name precisely to the middle of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Cathi
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Cathis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,200 people named Cathi are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Cathi in 2025?
- Cathi is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Cathi with classmates?
- Cathi 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 Cathi? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Cathi and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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