Catharine
Of Greek origin, signifying "pure" or "chaste".
Name Census estimates that about 4,924 living Americans carry the first name Catharine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Catharine today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Catharine births was 1915 (281 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Catharine. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Catharine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 69,609 Americans
Peak year
1915
281 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,377
Tracked since 1880
Census
Catharine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 6,296 people with the first name Catharine, which placed it at #3,367 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,367
National first-name rank
People counted
6.3K
6,296 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Catharine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catharine is White at 88.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.9%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Catharine described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Catharine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.7% · 5,584
- Hispanic or Latino3.9% · 248
- Two or more races2.5% · 160
- Black or African American2.5% · 158
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 133
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 13
Popularity
Catharine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Catharine from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 2,086 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Catharine by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Catharine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Catharines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, California recorded the most babies named Catharine, while West Virginia, Nebraska, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 197 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Catharine
The name Catharine is derived from the ancient Greek name Aikaterine, which itself originated from the combination of the words katharos meaning "pure" and the name of the Greek goddess Hekate. The name has its roots in the late antiquity period of the Greek civilization, around the 3rd century AD.
Catharine was one of the most popular feminine names during the Middle Ages, particularly across Western Europe. The name was borne by several notable historical figures, including St. Catherine of Alexandria, a 4th century Christian martyr and one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers venerated in medieval Europe. The cult of St. Catherine played a significant role in the widespread adoption of the name.
In England, the name gained prominence with Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of King Henry VIII, who lived from 1485 to 1536. Another notable bearer was Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife, who lived from 1523 to 1542. Catherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, lived from 1512 to 1548.
In Russia, the name was popularized by Catherine the Great, the renowned Empress of Russia who reigned from 1762 to 1796. Her birth name was Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst, but she adopted the Russian form of the name upon her marriage to the future Tsar Peter III.
Other notable historical figures named Catharine include Catharine Beecher (1800-1878), an American educator and leader in the movement to professionalize teaching; Catharine Sedgwick (1789-1867), an American novelist of the 19th century; and Catharine Macaulay (1731-1791), an English historian and radical political writer.
People
Catharine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Catharine as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Catharine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Catharine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,924 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Catharine going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 69,609 US residents.
Is Catharine a common name?
We classify Catharine as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12,994 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Catharine most popular?
The single biggest year for Catharine was 1915, when 281 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Catharine is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Catharine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 6,296 people with the name Catharine, or 2.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,367 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Catharine in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Catharine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Catharine appears almost entirely female. Of the 6,285 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Catharine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catharine is White at 88.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.9%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Catharine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Catharine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.7% (5,584 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Catharine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Catharine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Catharine in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Catharine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Catharine in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Catharine can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are named Catharine?
Find out how many people share the name Catharine on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.