Katrina
Feminine · “pure”
Katrina is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 101,493 girls against 238 boys since 1880.
Katrina is the German and Scandinavian shortening of Katharina, and the parent name's meaning was assigned to it centuries after the fact — 'pure' is a Christian reinterpretation, not an etymology.
How old is the name Katrina?
Katrina first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Katrina alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 96,500 people named Katrina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Katrina most popular?
Katrina peaked in 1982, reaching #87 nationally. Today it ranks #2214, 2,127 places below that high. See the whole 1982 chart.
Katrina appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Katrina
The story of Katrina
Catherine spread across Europe on the strength of the Alexandrian scholar-martyr's legend, and every language made its own form. German and Scandinavian gave Katharina and shortened it to Katrina and Katrin; Dutch gave Katrijn. American families borrowed the northern forms in the twentieth century, and Katrina rose sharply through the 1970s, peaking in the early 1980s.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure
Through Katharina and Aikaterine. The received reading is the Greek katharos, 'pure', but that meaning was attached later: the earliest form is not explained by katharos, and the spelling drifted toward it under the influence of the saint's legend. The original sense is not recovered.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katharina
- Katrina
Related forms: Katrin · Katrina · Katrijn · Catrina
Pronouncing Katrina
kuh-TREE-nuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. German and Swedish say it the same way.
Nicknames for Katrina
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
- 2005 — Hurricane Katrina
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 19803,397 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #87reached in 1982
- Change vs 2022
- −17.0%83 in 2025, from 100
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.
Katrina in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Katrin in German — related form
- Katrina in Swedish — same name
- Katrijn in Dutch — related form
- Catrina in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Pennsylvania.
Katrinas among us
people named Katrina are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 19,365 born in 2025 was named Katrina
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Katrina
- #2214
- Katrina on the 2025 chart
- #865
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Katrina went to 83 girls in 2025, but Catrina is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 95, which makes it the 865th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,349 places above the chart.
- Katrina83
- Catrina12
About 1 girl in 16,919 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 19,365 for Katrina 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 Maureen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Katrina's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Maureen climbed just as high around 1948, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Maureen's path sketches the road Katrina is walking now.
Katrina 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
Where Katrina is headed
Katrina should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Katrina beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Katrina in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A genuine German and Scandinavian form rather than an American respelling.
- Kat and Trina are two short forms that pull in opposite directions.
- It sits inside one of the largest name families in Europe.
- A catastrophic 2005 hurricane carried the name, which is a heavy association in the United States.
- The meaning of the parent name is not actually recovered.
- It is closely dated to the 1980s in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Katrina
Feminine · #2214 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Katrinas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 96,500 people named Katrina are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Katrina?
- Katrina is the most-used spelling in US records — 83 of the 95 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Catrina.
- How popular is the name Katrina in 2025?
- Katrina ranks #2214 among US girl names in 2025, with 83 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Katrina?
- About 1 in every 19,365 US girls born in 2025 was named Katrina — 83 in all.
- Will my child share the name Katrina with classmates?
- Katrina will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Katrina's chart?
- Katrina faded after 2005 — Hurricane Katrina.
Ranked beside Katrina
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hania#2214 · Perry#2214 · Bea#2214 · Lyana#2214 · Mahira#2214 · Lanie#2214 · Alorah#2214 · Nava#2214
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Katrina? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Katrina and another name?
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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