Katarina
Feminine form of the Latin name Catharina, meaning "pure" or "chaste".
Name Census estimates that about 9,019 living Americans carry the first name Katarina. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Katarina today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Katarina births was 1994 (523 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Katarina. 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 Katarina with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
9.0K
~ 1 in 38,004 Americans
Peak year
1994
523 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,743
Tracked since 1958
Census
Katarina in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 9,544 people with the first name Katarina, which placed it at #2,540 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
#2,540
National first-name rank
People counted
9.5K
9,544 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Katarina
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katarina is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.3%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Katarina 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 Katarina at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.8% · 6,850
- Hispanic or Latino18.3% · 1,744
- Two or more races4.8% · 459
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 304
- Black or African American1.3% · 128
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 59
Popularity
Katarina: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Katarina from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 3,553 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Katarina 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 Katarina during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Katarinas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Katarina, while West Virginia, Oklahoma, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 175 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Katarina
The name Katarina has its roots in the Greek language and culture, originating from the word "katharos," which means "pure" or "clear." It is a feminine form of the masculine name Katharios, which was derived from the same Greek word.
The earliest recorded use of the name Katarina dates back to the 4th century AD, when it was mentioned in various Byzantine Greek texts. During this period, it was a popular name among Christian families in the Eastern Roman Empire, as it carried a symbolic meaning of purity and righteousness.
In the Middle Ages, the name Katarina spread throughout Europe, particularly in regions influenced by the Byzantine Empire and the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was adopted by various Slavic cultures, where it was adapted to their respective languages, such as Katarina in Croatian, Ekaterina in Russian, and Katerina in Bulgarian.
One of the most notable historical figures with the name Katarina is Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a Christian martyr from the 4th century AD. According to legend, she was a highly educated young woman who confronted the Roman emperor Maxentius and criticized his persecution of Christians, leading to her eventual execution.
In the 16th century, Katarina von Bora (1499-1552), a former nun, played a significant role in the Protestant Reformation when she married Martin Luther, the renowned German reformer. Their marriage was seen as a bold statement against the Catholic Church's requirement of celibacy for clergy.
Another prominent figure was Catherine the Great (1729-1796), the Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She was a powerful and influential ruler who presided over the Russian Empire's golden age and expansion, earning her the epithet "the Great."
In the realm of literature, Katarina Frostenson (born 1953) is a Swedish poet and translator who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992 for her influential work in exploring the boundaries of language and human experience.
Lastly, Katarina Witt (born 1965) is a renowned German figure skater who won two Olympic gold medals in 1984 and 1988. She is considered one of the greatest figure skaters of all time and was known for her elegance, artistry, and technical mastery on the ice.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Katarina
People
Katarina + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Katarina 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
Katarina: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Katarina?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 9,019 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Katarina 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 38,004 US residents.
Is Katarina a common name?
We classify Katarina as "Rare". It ranks above 97.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 9,244 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Katarina most popular?
The single biggest year for Katarina was 1994, when 523 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Katarina is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Katarina in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 9,544 people with the name Katarina, or 3.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,540 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 Katarina 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 Katarina?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Katarina appears almost entirely female. Of the 9,543 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 Katarina?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katarina is White at 71.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (18.3%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Katarina most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Katarina in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.8% (6,850 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 Katarina in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Katarina a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Katarina 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 Katarina still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Katarina 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 Katarina 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 called Katarina?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Katarina, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.