Kaity
A feminine variant of the name Caitlin meaning "pure" of Irish origin.
Name Census estimates that about 447 living Americans carry the first name Kaity. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kaity today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kaity births was 1983 (33 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kaity. 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
447
~ 1 in 766,788 Americans
Peak year
1983
33 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2023 SSA rank
#16,300
Tracked since 1979
Popularity
Kaity: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kaity from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 176 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kaity 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 Kaity during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kaitys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Kaity
The name Kaity is a feminine given name derived from the Greek name Katharina, which means "pure" or "clear." It is a variant spelling of the more common name Caitlin or Caitlyn, which has its roots in the ancient Gaelic culture.
The earliest known use of the name Kaity dates back to the 12th century, where it was recorded in the Irish Annals as the name of a noblewoman from County Galway. In these ancient texts, the spelling was closer to the original Gaelic form, Cáitríona.
During the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity across Europe, particularly in regions with strong Celtic influences. One notable bearer of the name was Kaity of Wittenberg, a 16th-century German poet and writer born in 1521. She was known for her contributions to the Reformation literature of the time.
In the 17th century, the name made its way to the Americas through Irish and Scottish immigrants. One of the earliest recorded instances was Kaity O'Neill, a settler in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who was born in 1642.
As the name spread across different cultures, various spellings and variations emerged. In the 18th century, the French variant, Caïtie, was popular among the nobility, with Caïtie de Montfort, a prominent courtier during the reign of Louis XVI, being a notable bearer.
The 19th century saw the rise of the Kaity spelling, particularly in the United States. One of the most famous bearers of this name was Kaity Stover, an American journalist and women's rights activist born in 1856. She was a prominent figure in the suffragette movement and worked tirelessly to secure voting rights for women.
Other notable figures throughout history include Kaity MacKinnon, a Scottish painter born in 1875, whose works captured the rugged landscapes of the Highlands, and Kaity Fitzgerald, an Irish novelist and playwright born in 1890, known for her vivid depictions of life in rural Ireland.
People
Kaity + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kaity as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kaity: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kaity?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 447 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kaity 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 766,788 US residents.
Is Kaity a common name?
We classify Kaity as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 463 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kaity most popular?
The single biggest year for Kaity was 1983, when 33 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kaity is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Kaity a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kaity 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.
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.