Kathrine
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "pure" or "chaste".
Name Census estimates that about 10,547 living Americans carry the first name Kathrine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kathrine today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kathrine births was 1956 (275 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kathrine. 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 Kathrine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 32,498 Americans
Peak year
1956
275 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,861
Tracked since 1880
Census
Kathrine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 10,920 people with the first name Kathrine, which placed it at #2,329 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
#2,329
National first-name rank
People counted
11K
10,920 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
3.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kathrine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathrine is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Kathrine 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 Kathrine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.5% · 8,795
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 893
- Black or African American4.1% · 444
- Two or more races3.5% · 382
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 311
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 95
Popularity
Kathrine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kathrine from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 2,288 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
Kathrine 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 Kathrine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kathrines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 39 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Kathrine, while New Hampshire, Idaho, New Mexico recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 234 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kathrine
The name Kathrine is derived from the Greek name Katharina, which itself is a combination of the Greek words katharos, meaning "pure", and the name Aikaterine. The earliest recorded use of the name dates back to the 4th century BCE in ancient Greek texts.
In the early Christian era, the name gained popularity due to its association with the martyr Saint Catherine of Alexandria, who lived in the 4th century CE. The legend of Saint Catherine inspired many artistic depictions and literary works throughout the Middle Ages, further spreading the name across Europe.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Kathrine of Siena, an influential philosopher and theologian who lived from 1347 to 1380. She is renowned for her mystical visions and her role in persuading the papacy to return to Rome from Avignon.
In the 16th century, the name was popularized by Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of King Henry VIII of England. Their daughter, Mary I of England, was also known as Mary Tudor or Bloody Mary, and she reigned as Queen of England from 1553 to 1558.
Another notable bearer of the name was Catherine the Great, the Empress of Russia who ruled from 1762 to 1796. She is celebrated for her expansion of the Russian Empire and her patronage of the arts and culture.
In literature, one of the most famous characters bearing the name is Catherine Earnshaw from Emily Brontë's classic novel Wuthering Heights, published in 1847. The character's tragic love story with Heathcliff has become an enduring literary icon.
Moving into the 20th century, Catherine Deneuve, the renowned French actress known for her roles in films like Belle de Jour and Indochine, was born in 1943 and continues to be an influential figure in the entertainment industry.
People
Kathrine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kathrine 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
Kathrine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kathrine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,547 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kathrine 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 32,498 US residents.
Is Kathrine a common name?
We classify Kathrine as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 15,760 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kathrine most popular?
The single biggest year for Kathrine was 1956, when 275 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kathrine is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kathrine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 10,920 people with the name Kathrine, or 3.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,329 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 Kathrine 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 Kathrine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kathrine appears almost entirely female. Of the 10,914 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 Kathrine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathrine is White at 80.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Black (4.1%). 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 Kathrine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kathrine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.5% (8,795 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 Kathrine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kathrine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kathrine 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 Kathrine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kathrine 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 Kathrine 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 common is the name Kathrine?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.