Kaitlin
Feminine · “pure”
Kaitlin is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 57,355 girls against 75 boys since 1880.
Kaitlin is an Irish name that reached English through two acts of respelling. Caitlín is the Irish form of Catherine, borrowed from Old French; Kaitlin is Caitlín rewritten for readers who do not know Irish orthography.
How old is the name Kaitlin?
Kaitlin first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Kaitlin alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 56,500 people named Kaitlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaitlin most popular?
Kaitlin peaked in 1994, reaching #93 nationally. Today it ranks #4067, 3,974 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Kaitlin appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Kaitlin
The story of Kaitlin
Old French Cateline was borrowed into Irish as Caitlín, which Irish says roughly kat-LEEN. English speakers, reading the spelling rather than hearing the name, said KAYT-lin instead — and that mispronunciation became the standard English form, spelled Kaitlin, Katelyn, Caitlin and Caitlyn to match. The name rose very fast in America through the late 1980s and peaked in the mid-1990s, by which point the spellings numbered in the dozens.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure
Through Catherine, whose received meaning is the Greek katharos, 'pure'. That reading was applied later than the name: the oldest form, Aikaterine, is not explained by katharos, and the spelling drifted toward it under the influence of the saint's legend. The original sense is not recovered.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Cateline
- Caitlín
- Kaitlin
Related forms: Caitlín · Caitlin · Katelyn · Cateline
Pronouncing Kaitlin
KAYT-lin
Two syllables, stress on the first, in English use. Irish says the original Caitlín as kat-LEEN, with a different vowel and the stress at the end.
Nicknames for Kaitlin
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 19953,602 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #93reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- +29.6%35 in 2025, from 27
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.
Kaitlin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caitlín in Irish — same name
- Caitlin in English — spelling variant
- Katelyn in English — spelling variant
- Cateline in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New Jersey.
Kaitlins among us
people named Kaitlin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 45,922 born in 2025 was named Kaitlin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaitlin
- #4067
- Kaitlin on the 2025 chart
- #467
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaitlin went to 35 girls in 2025, but Kaitlyn, Caitlin and Caitlyn and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 7 spellings went to 582, which makes it the 467th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,600 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,762 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 45,922 for Kaitlin itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Colleen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaitlin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Colleen climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Colleen's path sketches the road Kaitlin is walking now.
Kaitlin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kaitlin is headed
Kaitlin is easing off slowly — about 20% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Kaitlin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaitlin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A real Irish name with a documented borrowing history, standing inside the enormous Catherine family.
- The English spelling is phonetic for English readers, which the Irish one is not.
- Kate and Katie are both available as short forms with their own long records.
- The English pronunciation is a misreading of the Irish, and Irish speakers will say it differently.
- The spelling proliferated to an extreme degree, so this one will rarely be assumed.
- The name is closely dated to the 1990s in American records.
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What they receive
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Kaitlin
Feminine · #4067 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaitlins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 56,500 people named Kaitlin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaitlin?
- Kaitlin is one of 7 recorded spellings. Kaitlyn is the more common one — 340 births in 2025 against 35 for Kaitlin.
- How popular is the name Kaitlin in 2025?
- Kaitlin ranks #4067 among US girl names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaitlin?
- About 1 in every 45,922 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaitlin — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaitlin with classmates?
- Kaitlin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaitlin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eli#4067 · Peace#4067 · Medina#4067 · Darlin#4067 · Anja#4067 · Sparrow#4067 · Liani#4067 · Salina#4067
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaitlin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kaitlin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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