Katrinka
Feminine · “pure”
Katrinka pairs Katrina with a Slavic-sounding -inka, and for American newspaper readers it had one unforgettable owner. In Fontaine Fox's comic strip Toonerville Folks, Powerful Katrinka was the famously strong woman of a small town whose rickety trolley was the running joke.
How old is the name Katrinka?
Katrinka first appears in US birth records in 1940 — 85 years ago. The typical Katrinka alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 400 people named Katrinka are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Katrinka most popular?
Katrinka peaked in 1954, reaching #2186 nationally. See the whole 1954 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Aikaterine to Katrinka
The story of Katrinka
Fontaine Fox drew Toonerville Folks from 1908 to 1955, and its trolley, the Toonerville Trolley That Meets All the Trains, became a byword for any rickety local line. Powerful Katrinka, big and famously strong, was among the strip's best-known characters, alongside the Skipper who drove the trolley and the Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang. The -inka ending that gives the name its bounce looks Czech or Russian, but no record ties Katrinka to any one language's standard pet forms, and none names where Katrina and the ending were first joined.
Meaningscholars disagree
pure, by an old link to Greek katharos
Katrinka is a pet form built on Katrina, from Katherine. Katherine's origin is not settled: the link to Greek katharos, pure, is an early Christian association, and the name itself is older than that reading.
How the name formed
- Aikaterine
- Katherine
- Katrina
- Katrinka
Related forms: Kateřina · Katharina · Katrien
Pronouncing Katrinka
kuh-TRINK-uh
The stress falls on the middle syllable, with the -inka said like drink followed by uh.
Nicknames for Katrinka
Limited
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
- 1940
- Most girls named
- 195424 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2186reached in 1954
- Change vs 1990
- 0.0%5 in 1992, 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.
Katrinka in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Kateřina in Czech — related form
- Katharina in German — related form
- Katrien in Dutch — related form
Katrinkas among us
people named Katrinka 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
Katrinka 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
- A documented American comic-strip bearer under this exact spelling.
- Katrina and Katherine stand behind it for a family honoring either.
- Three syllables with a clear stressed middle.
- The Powerful Katrinka character was a strongwoman gag, and the few people who remember the strip will think of it.
- Some will write Katrina and drop the -ka, and the ending will need spelling out.
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Katrinka
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Katrinkas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Katrinka are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Katrinka in 2025?
- Katrinka is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Katrinka with classmates?
- Katrinka 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 Katrinka? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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