Kaitlyn
Feminine · “traced back to Katherine”
Kaitlyn is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 166,689 girls against 232 boys since 1880.
Kaitlyn is the American phonetic respelling of the Irish Caitlín, which itself came from the Old French Cateline — a medieval form of Katherine. So a name that looks freshly minted is actually the newest coat of paint on one of the oldest names in Europe. In the mouth it moves in two clean beats, KAYT-lin, and it carries Kate and Katie along with it, ready-made.
How old is the name Kaitlyn?
Kaitlyn first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Kaitlyn alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 165,000 people named Kaitlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaitlyn most popular?
Kaitlyn peaked in 2000, reaching #30 nationally. Today it ranks #799, 769 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Kaitlyn
The story of Kaitlyn
Katherine came into medieval Latin and French from Greek, and French gave it the form Cateline. Irish speakers took that in and made it Caitlín, spelled with the Irish fada and pronounced quite differently from the English reading. When the name traveled to English-speaking countries in the twentieth century, readers who met Caitlín on paper pronounced it as English spelling suggested, and a family of respellings followed to match: Caitlin, Katelyn, Kaitlin, Caitlyn, and Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn is the version that spells the English pronunciation most plainly, with the K of Katherine at the front.
Meaningscholars disagree
traced back to Katherine, whose root meaning is not settled; often given as "pure"
Kaitlyn's own line is clear: it goes back through Caitlín and Cateline to Katherine, from the Greek Aikaterine. What Aikaterine meant is the unsettled part. Its ultimate origin is not known, and the familiar gloss "pure" comes from an early association with the Greek katharos, "pure" — a reshaping that stuck so firmly it has been repeated for centuries. Both readings are worth knowing; neither can be called proven.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katherine
- Cateline
- Caitlín
- Kaitlyn
Related forms: Caitlín · Caitlin · Katelyn · Caitlyn · Cateline · Aikaterini
Pronouncing Kaitlyn
KAYT-lin
Two beats, stress on the first. The Irish spelling Caitlín is pronounced differently in Irish — closer to KATCH-leen — so Irish speakers sometimes note the gap between the two readings.
Nicknames for Kaitlyn
High
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
- 20008,759 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #30reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −24.9%340 in 2025, from 453
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.
Kaitlyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caitlín in Irish — same name
- Caitlin in English — spelling variant
- Katelyn in English — spelling variant
- Caitlyn in English — spelling variant
- Cateline in French — related form
- Aikaterini in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Kaitlyns among us
people named Kaitlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 4,727 born in 2025 was named Kaitlyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaitlyn
- #799
- Kaitlyn on the 2025 chart
- #467
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaitlyn went to 340 girls in 2025, but Caitlin, Caitlyn and Kaitlynn 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 — 332 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,762 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 4,727 for Kaitlyn 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 Maria test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaitlyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Maria climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Maria's path sketches the road Kaitlyn is walking now.
Kaitlyn is coming down from a big peak (#30 in 2000). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kaitlyn is headed
Kaitlyn should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Kaitlyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaitlyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Pronounced exactly as it looks to an American English reader: no correcting at roll call, whatever happens with the spelling.
- Comes with short forms already in use for centuries — Kate and Katie — both of which also work as full names.
- Belongs to the wider Katherine family, so it sits comfortably beside relatives named Katherine, Catherine, Kathleen or Caitlin.
- Its line is documented from Greek through French and Irish into English, which is more than most modern-looking spellings can claim.
- The spelling is the real cost. Caitlin, Katelyn, Kaitlin, Caitlyn, Katelynn and Kaitlyn all sound the same, so she will be spelling it aloud for life and receiving mail addressed to the wrong version.
- Most people carrying this name are grown adults now, so it reads to many ears as a name of that cohort rather than a name of babies. That also means a child would rarely share it with a classmate.
- The "pure" meaning is repeated everywhere with great confidence, and it is not on solid ground. Worth knowing if you would rather not lean on a meaning you cannot stand behind.
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What they receive
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Kaitlyn
Feminine · #799 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaitlyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 165,000 people named Kaitlyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaitlyn?
- Kaitlyn is the most-used spelling in US records — 340 of the 582 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Caitlin, Caitlyn, Kaitlynn, Kaitlin, Caitlynn and Kaytlyn.
- How popular is the name Kaitlyn in 2025?
- Kaitlyn ranks #799 among US girl names in 2025, with 340 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaitlyn?
- About 1 in every 4,727 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaitlyn — 340 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaitlyn with classmates?
- Kaitlyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaitlyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Karla#799 · Kayleigh#799 · Dalia#799 · Janelle#799 · Aileen#799 · Elowen#797 · Bellamy#797 · Rayna#795
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaitlyn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kaitlyn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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