Catheryn
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "pure" or "innocent".
Name Census estimates that about 1,037 living Americans carry the first name Catheryn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Catheryn today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Catheryn births was 1950 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Catheryn. 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.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 330,525 Americans
Peak year
1950
31 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2019 SSA rank
#16,006
Tracked since 1896
Census
Catheryn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,296 people with the first name Catheryn, which placed it at #10,343 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
#10,343
National first-name rank
People counted
1.3K
1,296 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Catheryn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catheryn is White at 68.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.8%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Catheryn 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 Catheryn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.8% · 892
- Hispanic or Latino13.8% · 179
- Black or African American7.9% · 103
- Two or more races4.6% · 60
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.0% · 52
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 10
Popularity
Catheryn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Catheryn from the 1890s through to the 2010s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 241 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
Catheryn 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 Catheryn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Catheryns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Catheryn, while Pennsylvania, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Catheryn
The name Catheryn is derived from the Greek name Aikaterine, which itself is a combination of the Greek words "katharos" meaning "pure" and "hegen" meaning "to lead". It was Latinized to Catherina and eventually evolved into the English form Catherine and its variants like Catheryn.
The name gained widespread popularity across Europe after being borne by St. Catherine of Alexandria, a 4th-century Christian martyr venerated for her courage and wisdom. She is said to have been highly educated and converted to Christianity as a teenager, leading to her martyrdom under the Roman Emperor Maxentius.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Catheryn dates back to the 12th century, when it appeared in the Rotuli Chartarum, a collection of medieval English royal charters. During this period, the name was often spelled as Katerin or Katerine.
Notable bearers of the name Catheryn throughout history include Catheryn Howard (1520-1542), the fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England, who was executed on charges of adultery. Catheryn Parr (1512-1548), Henry VIII's sixth wife, was a prolific writer and advocated for the English Reformation.
In the 16th century, Catheryn de' Medici (1519-1589) was a powerful figure who served as the Queen Consort of France and later ruled as the regent for her young sons. She played a pivotal role in the French Wars of Religion and is known for the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
The name also appears in literary works, such as Catheryn Earnshaw, a character in Emily Brontë's classic novel "Wuthering Heights" published in 1847. In the world of arts, Catheryn Mansfield (1888-1923) was a renowned New Zealand writer known for her short stories and modernist style.
Another notable bearer of the name was Catheryn the Great (1729-1796), the longest-reigning female ruler of Russia, who presided over an era of territorial expansion, cultural renaissance, and Enlightenment ideals. Her reign is often regarded as the Golden Age of the Russian Empire.
People
Catheryn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Catheryn 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
Catheryn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Catheryn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,037 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Catheryn 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 330,525 US residents.
Is Catheryn a common name?
We classify Catheryn as "Rare". It ranks above 90.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,733 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Catheryn most popular?
The single biggest year for Catheryn was 1950, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Catheryn is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Catheryn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,296 people with the name Catheryn, or 0.43 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #10,343 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 Catheryn 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 Catheryn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Catheryn appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,291 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 Catheryn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catheryn is White at 68.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.8%) and Black (7.9%). 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 Catheryn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Catheryn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.8% (892 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 Catheryn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Catheryn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Catheryn 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 Catheryn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Catheryn 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 Catheryn 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 have the name Catheryn?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.