Katie
Feminine · “Traditionally read as "pure”
Katie is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 241,285 girls against 499 boys since 1880.
Katie is the short form that packed its own bag and left home. It began as a pet name inside the long Katherine line — the same line that gave English Kate, Kitty and Cathy — and by the nineteenth century it was being written on records in its own right, in America and across Britain and Ireland. Two syllables, both open, the second one rising: it is a name built for being called across a yard.
How old is the name Katie?
Katie was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Katie alive today was born around 1987, making them about 38 years old. About 197,000 people named Katie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Katie most popular?
Katie peaked in 1986, reaching #38 nationally. Today it ranks #646, 608 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Katie
The story of Katie
The parent name, Aikaterine, is Greek and very old; it traveled west through Latin as Catharina and Katherina, and by the Middle Ages it had a form in nearly every European language. English speakers shortened it almost immediately and then kept shortening it — Katherine to Kate, Kate to Katie, with Kitty, Cathy and Kay along the way. Katie is one of the diminutives that broke free entirely, standing alone as a given name in English-speaking countries from the nineteenth century onward. It has been strongly used on both sides of the Atlantic ever since, with Ireland and Britain particularly fond of it.
Meaningscholars disagree
Traditionally read as "pure", through Katherine
Katie comes from Katherine, and Katherine from the Greek Aikaterine, whose own origin has never been settled. The familiar "pure" reading came later, when Greek and Latin Christians linked the name to katharos, "pure" — which is also why the spelling shifted toward Katharina. So "pure" is a genuine, centuries-old reading of the name, but it is an interpretation laid onto an older word nobody has decoded.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Catharina
- Katherine
- Kate
- Katie
Related forms: Katy · Katya · Kati · Käthe · Cáit · Kata
Pronouncing Katie
KAY-tee
One pronunciation everywhere in English, with the stress on the first syllable. Speakers rarely need it spelled out, though the choice between Katie and Katy does have to be stated.
Nicknames for Katie
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
- 19878,197 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #38reached in 1986
- Change vs 2022
- −18.6%447 in 2025, from 549
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.
Katie in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Katy in English — spelling variant
- Katya in Russian — transliteration
- Kati in Finnish / Hungarian — related form
- Käthe in German — related form
- Cáit in Irish — related form
- Kata in Croatian / Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Pennsylvania.
Katies among us
people named Katie are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,596 born in 2025 was named Katie
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Paula test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Katie's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Paula climbed just as high around 1954, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Paula's path sketches the road Katie is walking now.
Katie is coming down from a big peak (#38 in 1986). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Katie is headed
Katie 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.
Katie beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Katie in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Instantly readable and sayable by anyone who speaks English; no explaining, no phonetic detours.
- Has an unbroken record in American statistics stretching back to the earliest years of the data — never absent, never a novelty.
- Works as a full legal name or as the short form of Katherine, Kathryn, Katelyn and Kaitlyn, so a longer certificate name is optional, not required.
- Has relatives in nearly every European language — Katya, Kati, Käthe, Cáit — which travels well.
- Comes with a ready set of alternate short forms: Kate, Kat, Kay.
- Katie is strongly represented among adults now in their thirties and forties, so a baby Katie will likely share her name with colleagues of her parents before she shares it with classmates.
- Katie and Katy both look normal, so expect a lifetime of small corrections — and Kaytee, Katey and Cathy will each turn up in someone's address book.
- Because it began as a diminutive, some people will assume it is short for something and ask for the "real" name. Putting Katherine or Kathryn on the birth certificate is one way around it, though plenty of Katies have never needed to.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Katie to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Katie
Feminine · #646 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Katies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 197,000 people named Katie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Katie in 2025?
- Katie ranks #646 among US girl names in 2025, with 447 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Katie?
- About 1 in every 3,596 US girls born in 2025 was named Katie — 447 in all.
- Will my child share the name Katie with classmates?
- Katie will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Katie
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Thalia#647 · Zariyah#645 · Galilea#647 · Aya#644 · Shelby#649 · Ellianna#642 · Arlet#642 · Andie#650
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Katie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Katie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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