Katie

215,039 people in America carry this name — ranked #260 of 923.

Carried mostly by the Millennials.

Say it KAY tee

2 syllables · the capitals are the stressed part

Phonetic transcription

K EY1 T IY0 — ARPAbet, as published in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. The digit on a vowel marks its stress.

  • People counted 215,039 2020 Census
  • Rank #260 Common
  • Per 100,000 71.2 about 1 in 1,541 people
  • As a surname No not above the reporting threshold

Where Katie comes from and what it means

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.

How often Katie has been given

238,870 babies were given this name since 1880. The busiest year was 1986, with 8,371 of them.

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

Most people carrying it were born in the 1980s. 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 Katie

Two syllables sit with almost anything — the join matters more than the length.

Better avoided

  • Katie Elizabeth — runs together
  • Katie Karen — same opening
  • Katie Emily — 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.

Going quiet

Katie has more than halved in three decades. The people carrying it belong mostly to the Millennials.

Is Katie used for boys or for girls?

0.1% men
214,755 women

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

The states where Katie is most common

In North Dakota the name is given 2.3 times as often as it is across the country.

  • North Dakota ×2.3
  • Montana ×2.1
  • Minnesota ×2.0
  • South Dakota ×2.0
  • Iowa ×1.9

Measured against the state's own share of births since 1960, so a small state can lead a big one. Counted from Social Security card applications.

Names with the same rhythm as Katie

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 — 2 syllables, stress on the first

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

How Katie is spelled

Katie is how 71% of them spell it — 301,859 people answer to the sound.

  • Katie 71%
  • Kate 29%

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.

The same name abroad

  • 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.

Try it Compare Two Names

Put another name beside this one.

One of those is not in the census file.

Open Compare Two Names 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