Kataleya
Feminine · “From the Cattleya orchid”
Kataleya belongs to the small family of orchid names: the Cattleya, a broad-lipped tropical flower named in the 1820s for the English horticulturist William Cattley, and the national flower of Colombia. Spoken aloud it moves in four unhurried syllables and ends on the same open vowel that carries Maya and Amaya. It is a young name in American records, and one that arrived with a distinct sound already attached.
How old is the name Kataleya?
Kataleya first appears in US birth records in 2011 — 14 years ago. The typical Kataleya is a kid of about 4 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,800 people named Kataleya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kataleya most popular?
Kataleya peaked in 2025, reaching #458 nationally. Today it ranks #458, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Kataleya appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Cattleya to Kataleya
The story of Kataleya
The orchid came first. Cattleya labiata was described in England in the 1820s and named for its grower, and the genus went on to become one of the most cultivated flowers in the world and the national flower of Colombia, where it grows wild. The spelling drifted in Spanish-speaking use toward Cataleya, and the K-form followed. Its arrival on American birth records lines up with the 2011 film Colombiana, whose heroine Cataleya Restrepo is named in the story for that flower — after which the name spread quickly among Spanish- and English-speaking families alike.
Meaningscholars disagree
From the Cattleya orchid
Two readings sit side by side. The first traces the name to the Cattleya orchid, named by the botanist John Lindley for William Cattley, who cultivated the plants in England in the early nineteenth century — which makes the meaning ornamental rather than linguistic. The second reads Kataleya as an elaboration of Catalina/Katalina, the Spanish and Hungarian forms of Catherine, whose own ancient meaning is itself unsettled. Many families who use the name have both in mind at once.
How the name formed
- Cattleya
- Cataleya
- Kataleya
Related forms: Cataleya · Cattleya · Kataleia
Pronouncing Kataleya
kah-tah-LAY-ah
Stress lands on the third syllable. English speakers often say kat-uh-LAY-uh with a flatter first vowel; Spanish speakers keep the open ah throughout. Both are in ordinary use, and the -leya ending is occasionally read as LEE-ah, which is worth deciding on early.
Nicknames for Kataleya
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
- 2011
- Most girls named
- 2025674 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #458reached in 2025
- Change vs 2024
- +12.1%674 in 2025, from 601
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.
Kataleya in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cataleya in Spanish — spelling variant
- Cattleya in Botanical Latin — related form
- Kataleia in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Kataleyas among us
people named Kataleya are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,385 born in 2025 was named Kataleya
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kataleya
- #458
- Kataleya on the 2025 chart
- #131
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kataleya went to 674 girls in 2025, but Cataleya, Cattaleya and Kataleyah and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 10 spellings went to 2,270, which makes it the 131st most-given girls’ name of the year — 327 places above the chart.
and 2 rarer spellings.
About 1 girl in 708 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,385 for Kataleya 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 Adrianne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kataleya's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Adrianne climbed just as high around 1983, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Adrianne's path sketches the road Kataleya is walking now.
Kataleya is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Kataleya is headed
Kataleya looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 30% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
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.
Kataleya beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kataleya in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Built entirely from sounds English and Spanish already share, so it survives the crossing between the two languages without being re-pronounced.
- Comes with ready-made short forms — Kat, Katie, Leya — that already exist as names on their own.
- A flower name with a real botanical referent, which gives it a plain answer to the question of what it means.
- Distinctive enough that a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- The spelling will need repeating. C or K, one t or two, -eya or -eia — all of these are in circulation, and the form you choose will be guessed wrong a fair amount of the time.
- Its wave in the United States is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying it is a child. There is no generation of grown Kataleyas yet to make the name feel ordinary to adults.
- The best-known Cataleya in popular culture is the assassin at the center of the 2011 film Colombiana. Some people will make the connection; most, especially as years pass, will simply hear the flower.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Kataleya
Feminine · #458 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kataleyas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,800 people named Kataleya are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kataleya?
- Kataleya is one of 8 recorded spellings. Cataleya is the more common one — 1,314 births in 2025 against 674 for Kataleya.
- How popular is the name Kataleya in 2025?
- Kataleya ranks #458 among US girl names in 2025, with 674 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kataleya?
- About 1 in every 2,385 US girls born in 2025 was named Kataleya — 674 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kataleya with classmates?
- Kataleya will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kataleya
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elisa#458 · Wynter#456 · Clementine#456 · Alicia#460 · Elle#461 · Helen#461 · Carter#454 · Madeleine#454
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kataleya? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kataleya and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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