Katharina
Feminine · “pure”
Katharina peaked in American records in 1881 and then fell away for a century, and the fall is not a change in taste. It is assimilation: German-speaking families arriving in the nineteenth century registered daughters as Katharina, and their granddaughters were registered as Katherine.
How old is the name Katharina?
Katharina first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Katharina alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,800 people named Katharina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Katharina most popular?
Katharina peaked in 1881, reaching #740 nationally. Today it ranks #6325, 5,585 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Katharina
The story of Katharina
Katherine of Alexandria was one of the most-venerated saints of medieval Europe, and her name entered every European language, each with its own ending: French Catherine, Italian Caterina, Spanish Catalina, Polish Katarzyna, German and Scandinavian Katharina. The German form traveled to the United States with the enormous nineteenth-century migration from the German states, and it is dense in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and Texas records of that period. Its best American year is 1881. What happened next is visible in the family trees rather than in the naming books: within two generations the same families were writing Katherine and Catherine, and the German ending survived only where the community itself did.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure, by way of a medieval reinterpretation
The Greek original is Aikaterine, and its source is genuinely unknown; it may contain the name Hekate or a word for each. In the Middle Ages Latin writers connected it to katharos, pure, and inserted an h to make the connection visible on the page. Every spelling with th, including this one, is carrying that thirteenth-century decision. The forms without it, Caterina and Katerina, preserve the older shape.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katharina
- Katharina
Related forms: Katharina · Caterina · Catalina · Katarzyna · Yekaterina
Pronouncing Katharina
kah-tah-REE-nah
Four syllables with the stress on the third in German. English speakers usually say kath-uh-REE-nuh, turning the th into a real th sound, which German never does; in German the h is silent and the t is plain.
Nicknames for Katharina
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
- 1881
- Most girls named
- 199451 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #740reached in 1881
- Change vs 2023
- +63.6%18 in 2025, from 11
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.
Katharina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Katharina in German — same name
- Caterina in Italian — same name
- Catalina in Spanish — same name
- Katarzyna in Polish — same name
- Yekaterina in Russian — same name
Katharinas among us
people named Katharina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 89,293 born in 2025 was named Katharina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Katharina
- #6325
- Katharina on the 2025 chart
- #931
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Katharina went to 18 girls in 2025, but Catharina is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 29, which makes it the 931st most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,394 places above the chart.
- Katharina18
- Catharina11
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 89,293 for Katharina 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
Fashion outlook
Katharina 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
Katharina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Katharina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One of the deepest name histories in Europe, with a saint in every Christian tradition.
- Marks a German, Austrian or Scandinavian heritage clearly and without explanation.
- Trina, Kathi, Katja and Kate are all available and sound nothing alike.
- Americans will say the th and will write Katherine or Catherine on forms.
- Four syllables is long for a country that shortens everything.
- The h is a medieval addition that pushed the name toward a meaning it may never have had.
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Katharina
Feminine · #6325 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Katharinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,800 people named Katharina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Katharina?
- Katharina is the most-used spelling in US records — 18 of the 29 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Catharina.
- How popular is the name Katharina in 2025?
- Katharina ranks #6325 among US girl names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Katharina?
- About 1 in every 89,293 US girls born in 2025 was named Katharina — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Katharina with classmates?
- Katharina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Katharina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kaye#6325 · Doria#6325 · Karolyn#6325 · Rosaleen#6325 · Roni#6325 · Darian#6325 · Svetlana#6325 · Fanny#6325
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Katharina? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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