Katherine
2025 SSA
About Katherine
Katherine is one of the oldest, most diverse, and all-around best names: it's powerful, feminine, royal, saintly, classic, popular, and adaptable. Long one of the top girls' names starting with K, Katherine has now been unseated on the popularity list by upstarts Kennedy and Kinsley, but a dip in popularity only adds to its charm.
Katherine also has a wealth of spellings, short forms, and admirable namesakes. The Katherine spelling has been the preferred one in recent years, though Catherine (now associated with the Duchess of Cambridge) has a gentle vintage appeal, while the Katharine spelling relates to actress Kate Hepburn. Sleeker, more modern-feeling Kathryn has in fact been used for centuries and is still popular if not exactly stylish, and the Irish have favored Kathleen.
Katherine's origins are lost in the mists of time. The earliest version in Ancient Greece was Ekaterine, which may have come from the name of a folk dance. Later, the spelling was changed under the influence of the Greek word katharos, meaning "pure" — a desirable virtue.
Katherine has been used for countless literary figures over the centuries, from the spirited heroine of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew to the BFF in Fifty Shades of Grey to characters on TV's Castle and The Vampire Diaries.
Martin Short and Tim Allen have daughters named Katherine.
A profusion of nicknames includes Kate, Katie, Kathy, Kath, Kat, Kitty, Kay, and Kick. Among international variations are Catriona, Catarina, and Katrina. Two literary namesakes are Katherine Anne Porter and Katherine Mansfield.
Pronounced KATH-rin; KATH-uh-rin.
As of October 2026, Katherine ranked #186 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #25 in 1991, Nameberry popularity #186.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #82 | 3,689 | 2,065.1 |
| 2015 | #84 | 3,454 | 1,934.9 |
| 2016 | #91 | 3,275 | 1,848.2 |
| 2017 | #105 | 2,861 | 1,657.1 |
| 2018 | #112 | 2,676 | 1,573.1 |
| 2019 | #120 | 2,450 | 1,459.8 |
| 2020 | #136 | 1,991 | 1,231.6 |
| 2021 | #157 | 1,819 | 1,108.6 |
| 2022 | #166 | 1,738 | 1,059.7 |
| 2023 | #170 | 1,703 | 1,061.3 |
| 2024 | #175 | 1,740 | 1,073.9 |
| 2025 | #186 | 1,670 | 1,039 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Katherine.
- Julia
- Laura
- Catherine
- Sarah
- Rebecca
- Anna
- Abigail
- Isabel
- Rachel
- Victoria
- Maria
- Marie
- Hannah
- Emily
- Alexandra
- Natalie
- Amy
- Elizabeth
- Anne
- Annabelle
Katherine on lists
Famous Katherines
- Katherine Swynford
Duchess of Lancaster, wife of John of Gaunt
- Katherine
Princess of Greece and Denmark, daughter of Constantine I
- Katherine Anne "Katie" Couric
American newscaster
- Katherine Mansfield
New Zealand fiction writer
- Katherine Grace "Kat" McNamara
American actress
- Katherine Anne Porter (born Callie Russell Porter)
American novelist
- Katherine "Kate" Chopin
American novelist
- Katherine Evelyn Anita "Katie" Cassidy
American actress
- Katherine Marie Heigl
American actress
- Katherine Jenkins
Welsh operatic mezzo,soprano
- Katherine Sian Moennig
American actress
- Katherine Elizabeth Webb
American model
- Katherine Murray "Kate" Millett
American feminist author
- Katherine Kiernan Maria "Kate" Mulgrew
American actress
- Katherine Emily "Kate" Hewlett
Canadian actress
- Katherine Rundell
British author
- Katherine Elizabeth "Kate" Upton
American model
- Katherine Ryan
Canadian,British comedienne
- Katherine Frances "Katy" Brand
English actress
- Katherine Marlea Clark
U.S. Congresswoman from Massachusetts
- Katherine Harris
U.S. Congresswoman from Florida
- Katherine Esau
German,American botanist
- Katherine Mary Dunham
American dancer
- Katherine Jane Parkinson
English actress
- Katherine "Kate" Ritchie
Australian actress
- Katherine Clairy Batis
Crown Princess of Yugoslavia as wife of Crown Prince Alexander
- Katherine Tudor
Princess of England, daughter of King Henry VII
- Katherine Kelly
English Actress
- Katherine "Katie" Beth Nolan
American sports personality and television host
- Katherine Schwarzenegger
daughter of journalist Maria Shriver and actor/politician Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Katherine Langford
Australian actress
- Katherine Ellen "Kath" Soucie
American actress
- Katherine Johnson
African,American NASA computer, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.
- Katherine Swati Kaling (b. 2017)
daughter of actress/writer Mindy Kaling
- Katherine Bowes
Lyon, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II
- Katherine Uchida
Canadian rhythmic gymnast
- Katherine Ann Cimorelli
Bass guitarist/singer in the band Cimorelli
- Katherine "Kat" Reynolds
American soccer player
- Katherine Rose "Kat" Gibson
Contestant on season 4 of Love Island USA
Katherine in pop culture
- Katherine "Kate" Houghton Beckett
main character on TV's "Castle"
- Katherine "Kitty" Freemont
character in Leon Uris' "Exodus"
- Katerina Petrova aka Katherine Pierce
character on TV's 'The Vampire Diaries'
- Katherine Solomon
character in 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown
- Katherine "Kitty" Forman
character on TV's "That 70s show"
- Katherine Mayfair
character on TV's 'Desperate Housewives'
- Katherine "Kitty" Anne Pryde
also known as Shadowcat, character in Marvel Universe
- Katherine "Kat" Hillard
second Pink Ranger in the Power Rangers series
- Katherine Glendenning
character on TV's 'The Paradise'
- Katherine "Kate" Kavanagh
minor character in '50 Shades of Grey" series
- Katherine
daughter in Shakespeare's "Henry V"
- Katherine "Kate"
character in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew"
- Katherine 'Kate' Austen
character on TV's "Lost"
- "An Abundance of Katherines
" novel by John Green
- Katherine "Kay" Corleone
character in "The Godfather" series
- Katherine "Kate
" character in 'Mortal Engines' by Philip Reeve
- "Katherine
" 1975 movie and main character
- Katherine Plumber
character in Disney's Newsies
- Katherine "kissing Kate" Barlow
character in Louis Sachar's "Holes"
- Katherine "Katie" Abbott Newman
daughter of Victoria Newman & Billy Abbott on "The Young and the Restless"
- Katherine "Kate" Kane aka Batwoman
DC Comics superhero.
- Katherine "Kate" Sanders
character in TV series "Lizzie McGuire"
- Katherine Warren
character in the "Resident Evil" video game series
- Katherine Fuller
theater kid in "From Dusk Till Dawn"
- Katherine "Kate" Olivia Harker
main character in Victoria Schwab's Monsters of Verity duology
- Katherine "Kitty" Song Covey
main character in TV series "XO, Kitty" and supporting character in the movie trilogy "To All the Boys..."
- "Robin Hood and Queen Katherine"
A ballad in the 19th century collection "The Child Ballads"
Variations & nicknames
- CatherineEnglish, French
- CatarinaPortuguese, Galician, Spanish, Italian
- CaterinaItalian, Catalan, Romanian
- CatalinaSpanish, Romanian (Cătălina)
- KaterinaGreek, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Czech, Russian
- KatarinaScandinavian, Serbian, Slovenian, Croatian, German, Slovak
- CaitríonaIrish
- KaterynaUkrainian
- KatrineScandinavian, German, French
- KatarzynaPolish
- KasiaPolish nickname for Katarzyna
- KätheGerman
- KathrinGerman, Estonian, Swedish
- EkaterinaRussian
More nicknames
- Kettie