Kateri
A name of Mohawk origin meaning "her rays of light shine".
Name Census estimates that about 2,360 living Americans carry the first name Kateri. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kateri today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kateri births was 1980 (65 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kateri. 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
2.4K
~ 1 in 145,235 Americans
Peak year
1980
65 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,993
Tracked since 1937
Census
Kateri in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,142 people with the first name Kateri, which placed it at #7,196 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
#7,196
National first-name rank
People counted
2.1K
2,142 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kateri
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kateri is White at 56.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.9%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (12.5%). 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 Kateri 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 Kateri at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.3% · 1,206
- Hispanic or Latino14.9% · 320
- American Indian and Alaska Native12.5% · 267
- Two or more races9.9% · 211
- Black or African American4.2% · 91
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.2% · 47
Popularity
Kateri: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kateri from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 494 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kateri remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kateri 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 Kateri during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kateris live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. New York, California, New Mexico recorded the most babies named Kateri, while Washington, New Jersey, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 25 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kateri
The name Kateri originates from the Mohawk language, spoken by the Mohawk people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. It is derived from the Mohawk word "Kateri," which means "pure one."
The name gained significant recognition due to its association with Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th-century Mohawk woman who converted to Catholicism and is now venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church. Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in what is now New York and died in 1680 in Canada.
In the early days of European colonization in North America, the name Kateri was likely used primarily by Indigenous communities, particularly the Mohawk people. As Catholic missionaries spread their influence, the name gained popularity among Native American converts to Christianity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kateri can be found in the writings of Jesuit missionaries who worked among the Mohawk people in the 17th century. These accounts document Kateri Tekakwitha's life and her commitment to her faith.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Kateri. In addition to Kateri Tekakwitha, who was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, other famous Kateris include Kateri Cullen, a Salish-Kootenai author and educator born in 1964, and Kateri Dayrise, a Mohawk actress and playwright born in 1982.
The name Kateri has also been used by several Indigenous artists and writers, such as Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, an Anishinaabe writer and editor born in 1965, and Kateri Menife, a Mohawk artist and activist born in 1986.
While the name Kateri originated within the Mohawk culture, it has gained recognition and popularity beyond its indigenous roots, particularly among those with an appreciation for its historical and cultural significance.
People
Kateri + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kateri 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
Kateri: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kateri?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,360 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kateri 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 145,235 US residents.
Is Kateri a common name?
We classify Kateri as "Rare". It ranks above 94.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,498 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kateri most popular?
The single biggest year for Kateri was 1980, when 65 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kateri is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kateri in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,142 people with the name Kateri, or 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,196 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 Kateri 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 Kateri?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kateri appears almost entirely female. Of the 2,145 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Kateri?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kateri is White at 56.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.9%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (12.5%). 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 Kateri most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kateri in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.3% (1,206 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 Kateri in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kateri a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kateri 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 Kateri still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kateri 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 Kateri 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 Kateri as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.