Catherine

410,557 people in America carry this name — ranked #113 of 923.

A name of the post-war decades.

Say it KA thur uhn

3 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

K AE1 TH ER0 AH0 N — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 410,557 2020 Census
  • Rank #113 Common
  • As a surname 457 ranked #49,659 the other way round

The meaning and origin of Catherine

Greek in origin, reading literally as “pure”.

Origins are a matter of scholarly argument rather than record, and a name can be traced more than one way. We state one reading and say where it came from.

Catherine through the years

664,696 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1956, with 12,078 of them.

80 90 00 10 20 30 40 50s 60 70 80 90 00 10 20

Most people carrying it were born in the 1950s. It has been given less often of late.

Counted from Social Security card applications, so it covers births registered in the United States and leaves out names given to fewer than five babies in a year.

Middle names for Catherine

Three syllables already, so a short middle name keeps the whole from running long.

Better avoided

  • Catherine Nancy — runs together
  • Catherine Nicole — runs together
  • Catherine Emma — runs together

Chosen by sound from the pronouncing dictionary, then ordered by how often the name is given. None of it is a rule — the ear decides.

Never out of use

Catherine has been given in every decade on record — no fashion lifted it and none has dropped it.

Is Catherine a boy's or a girl's name?

0.1% men
410,212 women

As recorded on census returns, not as anyone thinks the name ought to be used.

This name in other languages

  • Tri Swiss
  • Tryn Dutch
  • Kats Esth
  • Kati Hungarian
  • Kate Eng.|Ill
  • Kata Ill
  • Kadl Bav
  • Kaat Dutch
  • Hati Swiss
  • Trino Esth
  • Trine Swiss
  • Trili Swiss
  • Kitty English
  • Katty Ir

Forms of one name traced to the same root. Spellings are as the glossary printed them, so some look older than the versions in use today.

Full names people carry

The census counts first names and surnames separately and never together, so these are estimates: how often the two halves would meet if they paired at random. They do not — names cluster by community — so read them as an order of magnitude, not a headcount.

Names with the same rhythm as Catherine

Nothing else in the file ends on the same sound — a rare thing, and useful if you want a first name nobody will echo.

Same rhythm — 3 syllables, stress on the first

Matched on phonemes, not spelling, so the lists follow the ear rather than the page.

How Catherine is spelled

Catherine is how 92% of them spell it — 446,274 people answer to the sound.

Each spelling is its own census entry — the counts never overlap, so the shares are of the group, not of the country.

Names about as common

The nearest entries above and below by number of people.

Try it How Rare Is It?

Where this name sits between household and almost unheard of.

Common

  • People counted410,557
  • Rank#113
  • Roughly1 in 807 people

Open the full entry

Open How Rare Is It? on its own page

Where this page gets its numbers

  • Counts, ranks and shares: U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 Census tabulations of first and last names occurring 100 or more times. Percentages, bands and groupings are our own arithmetic — the conclusions are ours, not the Bureau’s.
  • Pronunciation, syllables and rhyme groups: CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, Carnegie Mellon University. The plain-English respelling is ours.
  • Origins and the forms a name takes in other languages: Charlotte Yonge, History of Christian Names, 1884 — a public-domain work. Scholarship has moved on since, so read it as one reading of a name, not the last word.

Below a hundred people we publish no figure at all — the same threshold the Census Bureau applies to us. What each source covers
Other names of Greek origin