Catherine
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "pure" or "clear".
Name Census estimates that about 348,984 living Americans carry the first name Catherine. It sits at #320 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Catherine today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Catherine births was 1956 (12,076 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Catherine. 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 Catherine with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Catherine is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,822 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Catherine have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
349K
~ 1 in 982 Americans
Peak year
1956
12,076 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2007 SSA rank
#320
Tracked since 1880
Census
Catherine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 410,554 people with the first name Catherine, which placed it at #113 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
#113
National first-name rank
People counted
411K
410,554 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
135.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Catherine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catherine is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Black (6.2%). 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 Catherine 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 Catherine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.5% · 330,379
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 26,556
- Black or African American6.2% · 25,498
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 16,093
- Two or more races2.6% · 10,536
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1,492
Gender
Gender distribution for Catherine
Out of the 668,624 babies given the name Catherine since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Catherine as a male name
- Ranked #12,668 in 2007
- 5 male births in 2007
- Peak: 1989 (44 births)
Catherine as a female name
- Ranked #320 in 2024
- 955 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1956 (12,057 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Catherine appears almost entirely female. Of the 410,557 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Catherine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Catherine from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 109,057 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Catherine 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 Catherine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 18 | 8,915 | 8,933 |
| 1890s | 21 | 14,502 | 14,523 |
| 1900s | 50 | 22,007 | 22,057 |
| 1910s | 147 | 65,823 | 65,970 |
| 1920s | 255 | 78,881 | 79,136 |
| 1930s | 242 | 50,026 | 50,268 |
| 1940s | 183 | 62,086 | 62,269 |
| 1950s | 220 | 108,837 | 109,057 |
| 1960s | 219 | 76,787 | 77,006 |
| 1970s | 159 | 43,864 | 44,023 |
| 1980s | 194 | 42,435 | 42,629 |
| 1990s | 80 | 40,759 | 40,839 |
| 2000s | 34 | 29,701 | 29,735 |
| 2010s | 0 | 17,151 | 17,151 |
| 2020s | 0 | 5,028 | 5,028 |
Geography
Where Catherines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Catherine, while Wyoming, Alaska, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12,172 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Catherine
The name Catherine has its origins in the Greek name Aikaterine, which is derived from the Greek words "katharos" meaning "pure" and "ren" meaning "reborn" or "virgin." The name was brought into the Latin language as "Catharina" and subsequently evolved into the modern English spelling of "Catherine."
The name gained widespread popularity in the Christian tradition, as it was associated with Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a 4th-century virgin martyr and one of the most revered saints in the early Christian church. The cult of Saint Catherine played a significant role in the spread and popularity of the name throughout Europe and beyond.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in the writings of the 4th-century Church Father, St. Jerome, who mentioned a Christian woman named Catherine in his letters. Over the centuries, the name has been borne by numerous notable figures in history.
Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), an Italian philosopher, theologian, and mystic, was a prominent figure in the Catholic Church and was canonized as a saint in 1461. She played a significant role in the return of the Papal court from Avignon to Rome.
Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the first wife of King Henry VIII of England, was a notable figure in the history of the English Reformation. Her refusal to annul her marriage to Henry VIII led to the break with the Catholic Church and the establishment of the Church of England.
Catherine the Great (1729-1796), born as Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, was the longest-reigning female ruler of Russia. She presided over the Russian Enlightenment and expanded the Russian Empire, earning a reputation as an influential and powerful monarch.
Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589), an Italian noblewoman, was the Queen of France as the wife of King Henry II. She played a significant role in the French Renaissance and was a prominent figure in the French Wars of Religion.
Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) was a Portuguese princess who married King Charles II of England. As Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland, she played a crucial role in the restoration of the English monarchy after the English Civil War.
The name Catherine has been popular throughout history, transcending cultural and geographical boundaries. Its association with religious figures, royalty, and influential women has contributed to its enduring appeal and widespread use across various cultures and societies.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Catherine
People
Catherine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Catherine 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
Catherine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Catherine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 348,984 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Catherine 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 982 US residents.
Is Catherine a common name?
We classify Catherine as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 668,624 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Catherine most popular?
The single biggest year for Catherine was 1956, when 12,076 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Catherine is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Catherine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 410,554 people with the name Catherine, or 135.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #113 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 Catherine 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 Catherine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Catherine appears almost entirely female. Of the 410,557 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Catherine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catherine is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.5%) and Black (6.2%). 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 Catherine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Catherine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.5% (330,379 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 Catherine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Catherine a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Catherine 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 Catherine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Catherine 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 Catherine 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 Americans are named Catherine?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Catherine, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.