Katelinn
A feminine name of Gaelic and Old English origin meaning "pure".
Name Census estimates that about 159 living Americans carry the first name Katelinn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Katelinn today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Katelinn births was 2001 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Katelinn. 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
159
~ 1 in 2,155,688 Americans
Peak year
2001
15 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2011 SSA rank
#15,776
Tracked since 1988
Census
Katelinn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 158 people with the first name Katelinn, which placed it at #44,091 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
#44,091
National first-name rank
People counted
158
158 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Katelinn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katelinn is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Katelinn 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 Katelinn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.6% · 129
- Hispanic or Latino7.6% · 12
- Two or more races5.7% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.2% · 5
- Black or African American1.9% · 3
Popularity
Katelinn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Katelinn from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 78 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Katelinn 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 Katelinn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Katelinn
The name Katelinn is a variant of the name Kathleen, which is derived from the ancient Greek name Aikaterine. The name Aikaterine is a combination of the Greek words "katharos" meaning "pure" and "hekaterine" meaning "each of the two." This Greek name was later Latinized to Catherina.
In the 5th century, there was a legendary Christian martyr named Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Her cult following helped popularize variants of her name across Europe during the Middle Ages. The name Kathleen originated as an anglicized form of Catherina in medieval Ireland.
The variant spelling Katelinn emerged in the early modern period, particularly in England and Scotland. One of the earliest recorded examples of this spelling is from the 16th century baptismal records of Katelinn Barker, born in 1583 in Yorkshire, England.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals named Katelinn. One of the earliest was Katelinn of Siena, an Italian philosopher and theologian who lived from 1347 to 1380. Another was Katelinn Howard, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England, who was executed in 1542.
In the 17th century, Katelinn Philips was a renowned Welsh poet and translator who lived from 1631 to 1664. During the 18th century, Katelinn Deshayes was a French painter and engraver who lived from 1706 to 1765. In the 19th century, Katelinn Beecher was an American educator and activist who lived from 1800 to 1878.
While the name Katelinn has seen periods of popularity and decline over the centuries, it has remained a distinct variant of the more common Kathleen. Its roots in the ancient Greek name Aikaterine and its association with the legendary Saint Catherine have given it a rich historical and cultural significance.
People
Katelinn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Katelinn 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
Katelinn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Katelinn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 159 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Katelinn 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 2,155,688 US residents.
Is Katelinn a common name?
We classify Katelinn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 163 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Katelinn most popular?
The single biggest year for Katelinn was 2001, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Katelinn is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Katelinn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 158 people with the name Katelinn, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #44,091 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 Katelinn 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 Katelinn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Katelinn appears almost entirely female. Of the 162 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 Katelinn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katelinn is White at 81.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.6%) and Two or More Races (5.7%). 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 Katelinn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Katelinn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.6% (129 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 Katelinn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Katelinn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Katelinn 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 Katelinn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Katelinn 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 Katelinn 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 Katelinn as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.