Kathry
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "pure, chaste".
Name Census estimates that about 27 living Americans carry the first name Kathry. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kathry today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kathry births was 1983 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kathry. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Kathry. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
27
~ 1 in 12,694,605 Americans
Peak year
1983
8 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
1986 SSA rank
#10,120
Tracked since 1954
Census
Kathry in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 219 people with the first name Kathry, which placed it at #36,320 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
#36,320
National first-name rank
People counted
219
219 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kathry
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathry is White at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Black (3.7%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Kathry 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 Kathry at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.0% · 195
- Black or African American3.7% · 8
- Two or more races2.7% · 6
- Hispanic or Latino2.3% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 2
Popularity
Kathry: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kathry from the 1950s through to the 1980s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 25 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kathry 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 Kathry 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 Kathry
The name Kathry is a variant of the feminine name Katherine, which has its origins in the Greek language. The root of the name is "katharos," meaning "pure" or "clear." It is believed to have been derived from the name Aikaterine, a compound of the Greek words "katharos" and "heiros" (pure, sacred).
In the 4th century, there lived a Christian martyr named Saint Katherine of Alexandria, whose cult was particularly popular in medieval Europe. This association with a revered saint contributed to the widespread popularity of the name Katherine and its variants across the continent.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Kathry can be traced back to the 12th century in England and France. During this period, the spellings "Kathry" and "Katry" were commonly used variations of Katherine.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Kathry was Kathry de Bohun, a 13th-century English noblewoman and the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, 2nd Earl of Hereford. She was born around 1200 and married Walter de Huntingfield.
In the 14th century, Kathry de Burgh, a member of the prominent Anglo-Norman de Burgh family, was recorded as the wife of John de Lancaster, a nobleman from Lincolnshire, England.
During the Renaissance period, Kathry Parr (1512-1548) was the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII of England. She was a dedicated patron of the arts and an influential figure in the English Reformation.
In the 17th century, Kathry Philips (1631-1664), an English poet and writer, gained recognition for her lyrical works and her contributions to the literary movement known as the "Cavalier Poets."
Another notable figure with the name Kathry was Kathry Garrettson (1754-1803), an American Methodist minister and evangelist who played a significant role in the spread of Methodism in the United States during the late 18th century.
While the spelling "Kathry" has become less common in modern times, it remains a variant of the enduring name Katherine, with a rich history spanning centuries and diverse cultural influences.
People
Kathry + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kathry 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
Kathry: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kathry?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 27 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kathry 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 12,694,605 US residents.
Is Kathry a common name?
We classify Kathry as "Very Rare". It ranks above 44.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 30 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kathry most popular?
The single biggest year for Kathry was 1983, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kathry is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kathry in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 219 people with the name Kathry, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,320 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 Kathry 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 Kathry?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kathry appears almost entirely female. Of the 222 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Kathry?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathry is White at 89.0%. The next largest groups are Black (3.7%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Kathry most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kathry in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.0% (195 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 Kathry in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kathry a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kathry 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 Kathry still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kathry 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 Kathry 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 Kathry as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Kathry, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.