Kathrina
Feminine
Kathrina writes a very old name in two syllables and a half, dropping the vowel that most English speakers were skipping anyway. The th in the middle of it was not there originally: it was added by scholars who thought they knew where the name came from and were wrong.
How old is the name Kathrina?
Kathrina first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Kathrina alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 700 people named Kathrina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kathrina most popular?
Kathrina peaked in 1886, reaching #1108 nationally. See the whole 1886 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Kathrina
Our story of Kathrina
The earliest Greek forms of this name are spelled with a plain t, and nobody knows what the name meant. Then, in the Greek-speaking Christian world, somebody noticed that it resembled katharos, meaning pure, and the connection was too attractive to resist. The spelling shifted to match, a th appeared where no th had been, and the meaning pure attached itself permanently. It is a folk etymology that succeeded so completely that it changed the letters. Latin and then English inherited the reshaped version, which is why the name is spelled with th across most of Europe and why nearly every baby-name book gives the meaning that the evidence does not support.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The original form was Aikaterine and its sense has never been established. The familiar reading, pure, comes from a later Greek word that was attached to the name by association rather than descent, and that association is why the th is in the spelling at all.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katherina
- Kathrina
Related forms: Katharina · Caterina · Yekaterina
Pronouncing Kathrina
kath-REE-nuh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. The dropped vowel is one most English speakers were not sounding in any case.
Nicknames for Kathrina
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
- 1886
- Most girls named
- 198929 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1108reached in 1886
- Change vs 2008
- −16.7%5 in 2012, from 6
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.
Kathrina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Katharina in German — same name
- Caterina in Italian — same name
- Yekaterina in Russian — same name
Kathrinas among us
people named Kathrina are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Kathrina sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The name behind it is one of the best-established in Europe and needs no explaining anywhere.
- Kat and Rina are both available as short forms and both stand alone.
- It has forms in a dozen languages, so it travels without translation.
- Katrina and Katharina are both commoner, so this spelling will be corrected regularly.
- The name has more spellings in English than almost any other, and all of them get confused with each other.
- The usual meaning given for the name is a later attachment rather than an etymology, which is worth knowing before repeating it.
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Kathrina
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Kathrinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Kathrina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Kathrina in 2025?
- Kathrina is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Kathrina with classmates?
- Kathrina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More K names
The most-given names starting with K, all years combined.
Karen#1279 · Kimberly#302 · Kathleen#1150 · Katherine#186 · Kelly#851 · Kathryn#729 · Kayla#364 · Kathy#3249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kathrina? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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