Catlin
Feminine
Catlin is given to both — 1,055 girls and 446 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Catlin is an English surname that looks like an Irish first name, and the confusion is permanent. It is also the name of a red stone: catlinite, the pipestone quarried in one place in Minnesota and used across the plains for sacred pipes, which carries the surname of the painter who described it.
How old is the name Catlin?
Catlin first appears in US birth records in 1970 — 55 years ago. The typical Catlin alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 1,000 people named Catlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Catlin most popular?
Catlin peaked in 1991, reaching #1996 nationally. See the whole 1991 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From an Old French form of Catherine gives an English surname to Catlin
The story of Catlin
The pipestone quarry in south-western Minnesota has been worked for at least three thousand years. The stone is soft enough to carve with a knife and hardens on exposure to air, it is deep red, and it occurs in a seam under quartzite that has to be broken through by hand. Pipes made from it were traded across the continent, and the quarry itself was treated as neutral ground. It is now a national monument where quarrying is reserved by law to enrolled members of Native nations, and the mineral carries the name of a nineteenth-century painter who wrote about it — which is one more example of a European name attached to something that was there first.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As an English surname Catlin descends from a medieval woman's name, an Old French form of Catherine, and belongs to the small group of family names taken from a mother rather than a father. As a modern American first name it is far more likely to be a spelling of the Irish Caitlin, which is a completely different route to a very similar set of letters. A modern bearer could be either, and the record does not distinguish.
How the name formed
- an Old French form of Catherine gives an English surname
- an Irish name arrives at a similar set of letters separately
- a red pipestone is given the surname as a mineral name
- Catlin used as an American first name from the 1970s
- peaks in the early 1990s
Related forms: Caitlin · Catlyn · Cateline
Pronouncing Catlin
KAT-lin
Two syllables, stress at the front. The Irish name behind the other route is said differently in Irish, which is the source of a long-running argument that this spelling sidesteps by not looking Irish at all.
Nicknames for Catlin
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
- 1970
- Most girls named
- 199169 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1996reached in 1991
- Change vs 2010
- 0.0%7 in 2011, from 7
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.
Catlin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caitlin in Irish — related form
- Catlyn in English — spelling variant
- Cateline in Old French — related form
Catlins among us
people named Catlin 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
Catlin 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 works for a child of either sex, and the record carries it on both sides.
- It is the plainest spelling in a family famous for complicated ones.
- Cat is available immediately and is entirely current.
- It sits among a dozen spellings of a very common name and will be written as all of them.
- The two possible origins are unrelated and neither can be given as the meaning.
- The surname belongs to a painter whose collection has its own difficult history.
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Catlin
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Catlins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Catlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Catlin in 2025?
- Catlin is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Catlin with classmates?
- Catlin 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 Catlin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Catlin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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