Kaitlynn
Feminine
Kaitlynn is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,419 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Kaitlynn is one of the many American spellings of Caitlín, which is Irish for Cathleen, which is Katherine — a chain of borrowings across four languages and about eight hundred years.
How old is the name Kaitlynn?
Kaitlynn first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Kaitlynn alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 16,000 people named Kaitlynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kaitlynn most popular?
Kaitlynn peaked in 1998, reaching #356 nationally. Today it ranks #3645, 3,289 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Kaitlynn
The story of Kaitlynn
Norman French brought Cateline to Ireland, Irish made Caitlín of it, and English speakers in the twentieth century heard the Irish name and wrote what they heard — Kathleen first, then Caitlin, then Katelyn, Kaitlin, Kaitlyn and Kaitlynn. That is four languages and at least six spellings for one name, and the American ones all arrived within about thirty years of each other.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The Greek Aikaterine at the bottom of the chain has no established origin; the connection to katharos, pure, is a later reinterpretation. Irish took the French Cateline as Caitlín, and English then respelled that in every possible way.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Cateline
- Caitlín
- Kaitlynn
Related forms: Caitlín · Kathleen · Katelyn
Pronouncing Kaitlynn
KAYT-lin
Two syllables, first stressed. Irish Caitlín is properly kotch-LEEN, which shares little with it.
Nicknames for Kaitlynn
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
- 1982
- Most girls named
- 1999822 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #356reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −8.9%41 in 2025, from 45
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.
Kaitlynn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caitlín in Irish — same name
- Kathleen in English — related form
- Katelyn in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Georgia.
Kaitlynns among us
people named Kaitlynn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 39,202 born in 2025 was named Kaitlynn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kaitlynn
- #3645
- Kaitlynn on the 2025 chart
- #467
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kaitlynn went to 41 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 — 3,178 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 2,762 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 39,202 for Kaitlynn 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 Bridgette test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kaitlynn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bridgette climbed just as high around 1973, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bridgette's path sketches the road Kaitlynn is walking now.
Kaitlynn 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 Kaitlynn is headed
Kaitlynn is easing off slowly — about 29% 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.
Kaitlynn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kaitlynn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented chain reaching back through four languages to late antiquity.
- Kait and Katie are both ready short forms that work at any age.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- There are at least six live spellings of this name and she will recite hers for life.
- The Irish pronunciation is completely different from the American one.
- The name is strongly associated with one American decade.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Kaitlynn
Feminine · #3645 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kaitlynns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 16,000 people named Kaitlynn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kaitlynn?
- Kaitlynn is one of 7 recorded spellings. Kaitlyn is the more common one — 340 births in 2025 against 41 for Kaitlynn.
- How popular is the name Kaitlynn in 2025?
- Kaitlynn ranks #3645 among US girl names in 2025, with 41 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kaitlynn?
- About 1 in every 39,202 US girls born in 2025 was named Kaitlynn — 41 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kaitlynn with classmates?
- Kaitlynn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kaitlynn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elenor#3645 · Azucena#3645 · Alaura#3645 · Judah#3645 · Rylen#3645 · Zamiyah#3645 · Naiara#3645 · Marietta#3645
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kaitlynn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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