Kitty
A diminutive form of the female name Katherine, derived from Greek meaning "pure".
Name Census estimates that about 5,631 living Americans carry the first name Kitty. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kitty today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kitty births was 1947 (358 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kitty. 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 Kitty with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
5.6K
~ 1 in 60,869 Americans
Peak year
1947
358 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#14,374
Tracked since 1880
Census
Kitty in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,485 people with the first name Kitty, which placed it at #2,992 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
#2,992
National first-name rank
People counted
7.5K
7,485 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
72.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kitty
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kitty is White at 72.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.4%) 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 Kitty 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 Kitty at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White72.8% · 5,452
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.4% · 1,149
- Black or African American4.9% · 367
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 232
- Two or more races2.7% · 204
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 81
Popularity
Kitty: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kitty 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 2,553 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
Kitty 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 Kitty during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kittys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Kitty, while New Jersey, Utah, Colorado recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 222 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kitty
The given name Kitty is an English diminutive form derived from the name Catherine. Catherine itself has Greek origins, with the root "katharos" meaning "pure" or "clear." This name gained widespread popularity throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance periods.
Kitty emerged as a pet form of Catherine, likely in the 16th or 17th century. It was a common nickname used affectionately for young girls named Catherine. The earliest recorded use of Kitty as a standalone given name dates back to the late 18th century.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Kitty was Kitty Fisher, an English courtesan and celebrated beauty who lived from around 1741 to 1767. She was known for her wit and charm, and her portrait was painted by several renowned artists of the time, including Sir Joshua Reynolds.
Another notable Kitty from history was Kitty Clive, an English actress and playwright who lived from 1711 to 1785. She was a leading comedienne of the 18th century and is considered one of the most influential comic actresses of her time.
In literature, Kitty Bennet is a character in Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice," published in 1813. She is the youngest of the Bennet sisters and is known for her flirtatious and playful nature.
Kitty Pryde, also known as Shadowcat, is a popular fictional character from the X-Men comic book series created by Marvel Comics. She first appeared in 1980 and has been a central member of the X-Men team, known for her ability to phase through solid objects.
Kitty Oppenheimer, born in 1912, was an American economist and author who wrote extensively on the Great Depression and Keynesian economics. She was a prominent figure in the field of economics and served as a consultant to various government agencies.
While the name Kitty has retained its charm and enduring popularity over the centuries, it has also been used as a term of endearment or a way to refer to young women or girls in general, particularly in literature and popular culture.
People
Kitty + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kitty 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
Kitty: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kitty?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5,631 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kitty 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 60,869 US residents.
Is Kitty a common name?
We classify Kitty as "Rare". It ranks above 96.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,657 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kitty most popular?
The single biggest year for Kitty was 1947, when 358 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kitty is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kitty in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,485 people with the name Kitty, or 2.48 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #2,992 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 Kitty 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 Kitty?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kitty appears almost entirely female. Of the 7,484 people counted with this name, 99.2% 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 Kitty?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kitty is White at 72.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.4%) 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 Kitty most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kitty in the 2020 Census, accounting for 72.8% (5,452 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 Kitty in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kitty a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kitty 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 Kitty still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kitty 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 Kitty 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 are named Kitty?
Find out how many Americans are named Kitty on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.