Katya
A feminine diminutive of the Russian name Ekaterina, derived from Greek meaning "pure".
Name Census estimates that about 3,053 living Americans carry the first name Katya. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Katya today is around 23 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Katya births was 2001 (146 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Katya. 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 Katya with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.1K
~ 1 in 112,268 Americans
Peak year
2001
146 babies that year
Average age
23
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,780
Tracked since 1962
Census
Katya in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,545 people with the first name Katya, which placed it at #4,199 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
#4,199
National first-name rank
People counted
4.5K
4,545 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
47.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Katya
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katya is Hispanic at 47.5%. The next largest groups are White (44.4%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Katya 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 Katya at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino47.5% · 2,159
- White44.4% · 2,020
- Two or more races3.3% · 149
- Black or African American2.9% · 131
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 70
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 16
Popularity
Katya: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Katya from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 1,086 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
Katya 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 Katya during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Katyas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 15 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Katya, while Ohio, North Carolina, Maryland recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 97 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Katya
The name Katya is a diminutive form of the Russian name Ekaterina, which is derived from the Greek name Aikaterine. Aikaterine is a combination of two Greek words: "katharos" meaning "pure" and "hekateros" meaning "each of the two." The name was borne by a 4th-century saint who was martyred in Alexandria during the reign of Emperor Maximinus.
Ekaterina was first introduced to Russia in the 10th century after the Christianization of the Kievan Rus. It became a popular name among the Russian nobility and royalty, with several Russian Empresses bearing the name, including Catherine I (1684-1727) and Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great (1729-1796).
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Katya is found in the 12th-century Russian epic poem "The Lay of Igor's Campaign." In the poem, Katya is mentioned as the wife of a warrior named Igor Svyatoslavich.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Katya. One of the most famous is Katya Lycheva (1925-1942), a young Soviet partisan who was executed by German forces during World War II for her resistance activities. Her bravery and sacrifice have been celebrated in numerous works of literature and film.
Another notable Katya is Katya Kabanova (1853-1933), a Russian opera singer who performed with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. She was particularly renowned for her roles in operas by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky.
In the field of literature, Katya Treu (1913-1997) was a German-born writer who authored several novels and short stories exploring themes of identity, displacement, and the aftermath of World War II.
Katya Linden (1965-), an American artist and sculptor, is known for her large-scale installations that explore the relationship between humans and the natural world.
Finally, Katya Zamolodchikova (born 1982) is a Russian-American drag queen and television personality who gained fame on the seventh season of the reality competition series "RuPaul's Drag Race."
People
Katya + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Katya 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
Katya: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Katya?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,053 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Katya 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 112,268 US residents.
Is Katya a common name?
We classify Katya as "Rare". It ranks above 95.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,130 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Katya most popular?
The single biggest year for Katya was 2001, when 146 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Katya is about 23 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Katya in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,545 people with the name Katya, or 1.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,199 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 Katya 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 Katya?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Katya appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,550 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Katya?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katya is Hispanic at 47.5%. The next largest groups are White (44.4%) and Two or More Races (3.3%). 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 Katya most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Katya in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.5% (2,159 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 Katya in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Katya a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Katya 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 Katya still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Katya 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 Katya 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 Katya?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.