Katarina
Feminine · “pure”
Katarina is the Slavic and Scandinavian of Katherine, and the pure meaning attached to it is a Greek word imposed on the name centuries after it appeared.
How old is the name Katarina?
Katarina first appears in US birth records in 1958 — 67 years ago. The typical Katarina alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 9,200 people named Katarina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Katarina most popular?
Katarina peaked in 1994, reaching #476 nationally. Today it ranks #1777, 1,301 places below that high. See the whole 1994 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Katarina
The story of Katarina
Catherine of Alexandria was among the most venerated medieval saints, and the name spread into every Christian language with more variants than almost any other. Katarina is standard in Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Swedish and Slovak. Emigration brought it to America, where it appears in the registers and is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure
Through Katherine, first recorded as Aikaterine, of unrecovered origin and possibly linked to Hecate. The Greek katharos, 'pure', was attached later and produced the th in the English spelling. The 'pure' reading is a reinterpretation, though a very old and settled one.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katharina
- Katarina
Related forms: Katarina · Katarina · Katarina · Katharina
Pronouncing Katarina
kah-tah-REE-nah
Four syllables, stress on the third. Swedish places the stress on the second.
Nicknames for Katarina
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
- 1958
- Most girls named
- 1995446 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #476reached in 1994
- Change vs 2024
- −2.6%113 in 2025, from 116
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.
Katarina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Katarina in Croatian — same name
- Katarina in Swedish — same name
- Katarina in Slovene — same name
- Katharina in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Katarinas among us
people named Katarina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 14,224 born in 2025 was named Katarina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Katarina
- #1777
- Katarina on the 2025 chart
- #745
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Katarina went to 113 girls in 2025, but Catarina is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 216, which makes it the 745th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,032 places above the chart.
- Katarina113
- Catarina103
About 1 girl in 7,441 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 14,224 for Katarina 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 Richard test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Katarina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Richard climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Richard's path sketches the road Katarina is walking now.
Katarina 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 Katarina is headed
Katarina 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.
Katarina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Katarina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Katherine stands behind it with more forms across more languages than almost any other name.
- It is standard across five European languages without change.
- Kata and Rina are two short forms with real use.
- The 'pure' meaning is a later attachment rather than the original.
- Katharina and Catarina are both close and equally established.
- Four syllables make it long for everyday use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Katarina
Feminine · #1777 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Katarinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 9,200 people named Katarina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Katarina?
- Katarina is the most-used spelling in US records — 113 of the 216 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Catarina.
- How popular is the name Katarina in 2025?
- Katarina ranks #1777 among US girl names in 2025, with 113 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Katarina?
- About 1 in every 14,224 US girls born in 2025 was named Katarina — 113 in all.
- Will my child share the name Katarina with classmates?
- Katarina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Katarina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Tess#1777 · Ronnie#1777 · Arizbeth#1777 · Jalayah#1777 · Cosette#1777 · Adore#1777 · Yesly#1777 · Harlowe#1777
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Katarina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Katarina and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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