Katilyn
Feminine · “pure”
Every other spelling of this name keeps an e or an i where this puts an i of a different kind. Katelyn, Kaitlyn and Caitlin all handle that middle syllable one way; Katilyn handles it another, and since the syllable is unstressed and reduced to nothing, all four sound exactly alike.
How old is the name Katilyn?
Katilyn first appears in US birth records in 1980 — 45 years ago. The typical Katilyn alive today was born around 1999, making them about 26 years old. About 1,700 people named Katilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Katilyn most popular?
Katilyn peaked in 1995, reaching #1550 nationally. See the whole 1995 chart.
Where it comes from
From Caitlín to Katilyn
The story of Katilyn
This name has more recorded spellings in American registers than almost anything else. Somewhere between two and three dozen variants have been counted, all said identically, all appearing within about thirty years — and the reason is that the name arrived by ear, from a language whose spelling gives an English reader no help at all, at a moment when respelling was fashionable. Every family that heard it had to solve the same problem alone, and they arrived at every possible answer. The result is a single name occupying several dozen lines of the record.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure
The chain runs back through an Irish form to a Greek name whose meaning has never been established. The purity reading is a later reinterpretation and should not be given as settled.
How the name formed
- Caitlín
- Katelyn
- Katilyn
Related forms: Caitlín
Pronouncing Katilyn
KATE-lin
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The middle vowel is reduced to nothing, which is why it can be spelled a dozen ways without consequence.
Nicknames for Katilyn
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
- 1980
- Most girls named
- 1998101 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1550reached in 1995
- Change vs 2018
- +20.0%6 in 2019, from 5
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.
Katilyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Caitlín in Irish — same name
Katilyns among us
people named Katilyn 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
Katilyn 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 sound is completely settled even though the spelling is not.
- Kat sits inside it as a short form that needs no explaining.
- It is rarer than the commoner spellings while sounding identical.
- Several dozen spellings compete and this one gets corrected to most of them.
- The meaning cannot be given as settled, whatever other pages say.
- It is closely tied to the decades of the name's rise.
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What they receive
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Katilyn
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Katilyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,700 people named Katilyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Katilyn in 2025?
- Katilyn is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Katilyn with classmates?
- Katilyn 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 Katilyn? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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