Cathleen
A feminine name of Greek origin referring to the notion of purity.
Name Census estimates that about 21,708 living Americans carry the first name Cathleen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cathleen today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cathleen births was 1958 (1,159 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cathleen. 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 Cathleen with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
22K
~ 1 in 15,789 Americans
Peak year
1958
1,159 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
1964 SSA rank
#4,132
Tracked since 1896
Census
Cathleen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 24,813 people with the first name Cathleen, which placed it at #1,400 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
#1,400
National first-name rank
People counted
25K
24,813 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
8.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cathleen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cathleen is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.0%) and Black (2.6%). 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 Cathleen 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 Cathleen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White88.4% · 21,944
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 986
- Black or African American2.6% · 651
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 579
- Two or more races2.2% · 546
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 107
Gender
Gender distribution for Cathleen
Out of the 29,922 babies given the name Cathleen since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Cathleen as a male name
- Ranked #4,132 in 1964
- 5 male births in 1964
- Peak: 1953 (5 births)
Cathleen as a female name
- Ranked #9,030 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1958 (1,159 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cathleen appears almost entirely female. Of the 24,815 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Cathleen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cathleen from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 9,469 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
Cathleen 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 Cathleen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cathleens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 49 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Cathleen, while Alaska, Vermont, West Virginia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 516 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cathleen
Cathleen is a feminine given name that originated as an anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name Caitlín. The name Caitlín itself is a diminutive or pet form of the Gaelic name Caitríona, which is derived from the older Irish name Cathair, meaning "battle" or "contest".
The name Cathleen first emerged in the late 16th century in Ireland, where it was used as an English equivalent to the Irish Caitlín. It gained popularity in the 17th and 18th centuries, particularly among Irish Catholics and those of Irish descent.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Cathleen can be found in the 17th-century Irish poetry of Dáibhí ÓBruadair, a prominent poet of the Irish bardic tradition. In his poem "Caitilín Ní Uallacháin", he celebrated the beauty and virtues of a woman named Cathleen O'Nolan.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Cathleen. One of the most famous was Cathleen Ni Houlihan (born c. 1500), a legendary figure in Irish mythology who personified Ireland and inspired Irish nationalism.
Another notable Cathleen was Cathleen Countess of Longford (1920-2009), an English writer, historian, and philanthropist known for her biographies and her advocacy for prison reform. She was a close friend of the playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Cathleen Nesbitt (1888-1982) was a British actress who had a long and successful career on stage and screen, appearing in films such as "The Lady Vanishes" and "Whisky Galore".
Cathleen Synge Morawetz (1923-2017) was a Canadian-American mathematician and pioneering researcher in the field of partial differential equations. She was the second woman to receive the prestigious National Medal of Science in the United States.
Cathleen Blackburn (born 1950) is a Canadian environmental activist and lawyer who has been a prominent advocate for the protection of British Columbia's old-growth forests and the rights of indigenous peoples.
People
Cathleen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cathleen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Cathleen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cathleen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 21,708 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cathleen 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 15,789 US residents.
Is Cathleen a common name?
We classify Cathleen as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 29,922 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cathleen most popular?
The single biggest year for Cathleen was 1958, when 1,159 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cathleen is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cathleen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 24,813 people with the name Cathleen, or 8.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,400 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 Cathleen 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 Cathleen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cathleen appears almost entirely female. Of the 24,815 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Cathleen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cathleen is White at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (4.0%) and Black (2.6%). 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 Cathleen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cathleen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (21,944 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 Cathleen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cathleen a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cathleen 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 Cathleen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cathleen 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 Cathleen 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 Americans are named Cathleen?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.