Kathern
Pure, chaste maiden; of Greek origin.
Name Census estimates that about 1,566 living Americans carry the first name Kathern. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kathern today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kathern births was 1954 (96 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kathern. 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
1.6K
~ 1 in 218,873 Americans
Peak year
1954
96 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2006 SSA rank
#18,589
Tracked since 1884
Census
Kathern in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,906 people with the first name Kathern, which placed it at #7,822 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
#7,822
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,906 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kathern
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathern is White at 84.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.0%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Kathern 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 Kathern at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.5% · 1,611
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 95
- Black or African American4.9% · 93
- Two or more races3.4% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 29
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 14
Popularity
Kathern: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kathern from the 1880s through to the 2000s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 743 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
Kathern 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 Kathern during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Katherns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. West Virginia, Kentucky, California recorded the most babies named Kathern, while Virginia, Oregon, Louisiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 39 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kathern
The name Kathern is derived from the Greek name Aikaterine, which itself is believed to have originated from the Greek words "katharos" meaning "pure" and "heinai" meaning "to be." This suggests that the name Kathern was initially associated with purity or innocence. The name can be traced back to the late 4th century AD, when it was popularized by St. Catherine of Alexandria, a Christian martyr who lived in the 4th century.
Kathern was a relatively common name in medieval Europe, particularly in England and other parts of the British Isles. It was often spelled with variations such as Katherine, Catheryn, or Cathrine, reflecting the fluidity of spelling conventions during that period. The name gained further prominence in the Christian tradition due to its association with St. Catherine of Siena, a 14th-century mystic and philosopher.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kathern can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, including Cathrina and Katerina, suggesting its widespread use among the English nobility of the time.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Kathern or its variants. Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the first wife of King Henry VIII of England, was a powerful and influential figure in her own right. Kathern Swynford (1350-1403) was the mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, playing an essential role in the legitimization of the Beaufort line of the Plantagenet dynasty.
Another notable Kathern was Catherine de' Medici (1519-1589), the Queen of France and a powerful political figure during the French Renaissance. She played a pivotal role in the religious wars that plagued France during her reign. Kathern Parr (1512-1548), the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, was a prominent figure in the English Reformation and a influential patron of the arts and education.
In the realm of literature, Kathern Mansfield (1888-1923) was a pioneering modernist writer known for her innovative short stories. Her works explored themes of identity, relationships, and the complexities of modern life, earning her a significant place in the literary canon of the 20th century.
People
Kathern + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kathern 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
Kathern: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kathern?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,566 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kathern 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 218,873 US residents.
Is Kathern a common name?
We classify Kathern as "Rare". It ranks above 92.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,323 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kathern most popular?
The single biggest year for Kathern was 1954, when 96 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kathern is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kathern in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,906 people with the name Kathern, or 0.63 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,822 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 Kathern 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 Kathern?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kathern appears almost entirely female. Of the 1,909 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kathern?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathern is White at 84.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.0%) and Black (4.9%). 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 Kathern most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kathern in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.5% (1,611 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 Kathern in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kathern a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kathern 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 Kathern still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kathern 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 Kathern 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 Kathern?
Want to know how many people have the name Kathern? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.