Kate
Feminine · “traditionally read as "pure”
Kate is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 85,987 girls against 89 boys since 1880.
Kate has been the everyday form of Katherine for so long that Shakespeare could already lean on it — Katherina in The Taming of the Shrew answers to Kate, and so does the French princess in Henry V. One syllable, one hard landing on the T, nothing left over to trip on. It has spent centuries as a nickname and several as a full name in its own right.
How old is the name Kate?
Kate was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Kate alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 70,500 people named Kate are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kate most popular?
Kate peaked in 1880, reaching #79 nationally. Today it ranks #520, 441 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Kate
The story of Kate
The parent name arrived in the Greek-speaking east and traveled west through the cult of Katherine of Alexandria, becoming Catherine in France, Katharina in the German lands, Caterina in Italy. English speakers clipped it almost immediately, and by the Middle Ages Kate, Kit and Kitty were all doing service for the same long formal name. Kate proved the most durable of the three: it survived on its own birth certificates rather than only as an affectionate shortening, and it has been recorded steadily in the United States since national records began. It sits in the small class of nicknames that outgrew the need for a parent name.
Meaningscholars disagree
traditionally read as "pure", though the older root is uncertain
Kate comes from Katherine, and Katherine from the Greek Aikaterine, whose origin has never been settled. From early on the name was associated with Greek katharos, "pure" — that link shaped the Latin spelling Catharina and is the reading most often given. Other scholars trace Aikaterine to the goddess Hekate, or to an unrecoverable pre-Greek word. The "pure" sense is real as tradition, not as proven etymology.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Catharina
- Katherine
- Kate
Related forms: Käthe · Katya · Kata · Kaat · Cate · Catia
Pronouncing Kate
KAYT
One syllable, rhyming with gate. It is pronounced the same in English wherever it is used, and the spelling gives no one any trouble.
Nicknames for Kate
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 20072,550 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #79reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- −17.1%576 in 2025, from 695
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.
Kate in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Käthe in German — related form
- Katya in Russian — related form
- Kata in Hungarian — related form
- Kaat in Dutch — related form
- Cate in English — spelling variant
- Catia in Italian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Kates among us
people named Kate are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,790 born in 2025 was named Kate
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Kate 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 Kate is headed
Kate is easing off slowly — about 18% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Kate beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kate in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Instantly spellable and instantly readable — almost no one will need it repeated or clarified.
- Works as a full legal name or as the short form of Katherine, Katharine or Kathleen, so the choice can stay open.
- A documented history in English going back to the Middle Ages, with continuous use in US records since they began.
- Close relatives exist in German, Russian, Italian, Hungarian and Dutch, so the name is recognizable well beyond English.
- Familiar without being crowded — a child named Kate is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- People will often assume it is short for Katherine and ask for the "full" name on forms, at school, at the doctor's office. That is easy to answer but it does keep coming up.
- At one syllable it can run together with short surnames; saying the whole name aloud a few times is worth doing before you commit.
- It leaves little room to change register later — there is no long formal version to grow into unless you choose one on the birth certificate.
- Still strongly represented among adults, so the name reads as established rather than new; some parents like exactly that, others are looking for something fresher.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Kate to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Kate
Feminine · #520 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kates are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 70,500 people named Kate are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kate in 2025?
- Kate ranks #520 among US girl names in 2025, with 576 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kate?
- About 1 in every 2,790 US girls born in 2025 was named Kate — 576 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kate with classmates?
- Kate will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kate
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jovie#520 · Amber#520 · Eve#519 · Jream#517 · Clover#517 · Marlowe#523 · Madelynn#524 · Iyla#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kate? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kate and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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