Kathia
Feminine · “Pure”
Kathia is Katia written with a th, and Katia is what Russian does to Ekaterina: strip it to the second syllable and add a soft ending. The th is a French and Spanish spelling habit, and the name reached America mostly through Haiti and Latin America rather than Russia.
How old is the name Kathia?
Kathia first appears in US birth records in 1954 — 71 years ago. The typical Kathia alive today was born around 2001, making them about 24 years old. About 1,500 people named Kathia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kathia most popular?
Kathia peaked in 1996, reaching #1577 nationally. Today it ranks #5410, 3,833 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Kathia
The story of Kathia
Catherine of Alexandria, whose historicity is doubtful, was among the most popular saints of medieval Europe, and her name spread everywhere in every language's form. Russian gave Ekaterina and clipped it to Katia; French borrowed Katia and Kathia in the twentieth century, partly through Russian émigré culture in Paris. From French the spelling traveled to Haiti and to French-speaking Africa, and separately Spanish-speaking Latin America took Katia and Kathia. American records show Kathia from the 1970s, concentrated in Haitian and Hispanic families, with a peak in 1996.
Meaningscholars disagree
Pure, or contested
Katia is a Russian familiar form of Ekaterina, the Greek Aikaterine, whose meaning is genuinely unsettled — the connection to katharos, pure, is a later Christian reinterpretation rather than the original etymology, and the name's true source is unknown. The reading pure is traditional and not established. Kathia is a French and Spanish spelling of the same familiar form.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Ekaterina
- Katia
- Kathia
Related forms: Катя · Katia · Katia · Katherine · Aikaterini
Pronouncing Kathia
KAH-tee-ah
Three syllables in Spanish and French, stress on the first, with the th said as a plain t. English speakers often say KATH-ee-uh, sounding the th, which no source language does.
Nicknames for Kathia
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
- 1954
- Most girls named
- 199699 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1577reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- +21.1%23 in 2025, from 19
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.
Kathia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Катя in Russian — related form
- Katia in French — spelling variant
- Katia in Spanish — spelling variant
- Katherine in English — related form
- Aikaterini in Greek — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Kathias among us
people named Kathia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was named Kathia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kathia
- #5410
- Kathia on the 2025 chart
- #931
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kathia went to 23 girls in 2025, but Kathya 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 — 4,479 places above the chart.
- Kathia23
- Kathya6
About 1 girl in 55,423 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 69,881 for Kathia 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 Montine test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kathia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Montine climbed just as high around 1921, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Montine's path sketches the road Kathia is walking now.
Kathia 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
Kathia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kathia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Kat is available as an immediate and very familiar short form.
- It connects to one of the largest name families in Europe.
- The vowels are open and easy for any speaker.
- English speakers will sound the th, which is wrong in every source language.
- Katia, Kathia, Catia and Katya are four spellings of one familiar form.
- The traditional meaning pure is a later reinterpretation, not the etymology.
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What they receive
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Kathia
Feminine · #5410 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kathias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Kathia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kathia?
- Kathia is the most-used spelling in US records — 23 of the 29 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kathya.
- How popular is the name Kathia in 2025?
- Kathia ranks #5410 among US girl names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kathia?
- About 1 in every 69,881 US girls born in 2025 was named Kathia — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kathia with classmates?
- Kathia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kathia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aina#5410 · Sherry#5410 · Taj#5410 · Analicia#5410 · Divya#5410 · Halimah#5410 · Sameera#5410 · Leo#5410
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kathia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kathia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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