Cathrine
A feminine name derived from the Greek Katharina, meaning pure or clear.
Name Census estimates that about 4,156 living Americans carry the first name Cathrine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Cathrine today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Cathrine births was 1956 (178 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Cathrine. 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 Cathrine with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.2K
~ 1 in 82,472 Americans
Peak year
1956
178 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2019 SSA rank
#16,007
Tracked since 1880
Census
Cathrine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,775 people with the first name Cathrine, which placed it at #4,059 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
#4,059
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,775 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Cathrine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cathrine is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (7.7%). 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 Cathrine 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 Cathrine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.7% · 3,614
- Black or African American8.6% · 410
- Hispanic or Latino7.7% · 366
- Two or more races3.7% · 179
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 172
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 34
Popularity
Cathrine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Cathrine from the 1880s through to the 2010s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 1,413 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
Cathrine 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 Cathrine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Cathrines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Cathrine, while Maryland, Iowa, Oklahoma recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 106 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Cathrine
The name Cathrine is derived from the ancient Greek name Katharina, which itself originated from the name Aikaterine. Aikaterine is composed of the Greek elements "katharos" meaning "pure" and "hekatos" meaning "each of the two." It was likely created to denote the idea of purity on both the physical and spiritual planes.
Aikaterine was later Latinized into Catherina and eventually evolved into the English variants Catherine and Cathrine. The name was popular among early Christian communities as it was borne by St. Catherine of Alexandria, a 4th-century philosopher and martyr who is venerated as a patron saint of philosophers, preachers, and theologians.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Cathrine can be found in the 12th-century chronicles of the English historian and author William of Malmesbury, who documented the life of Cathrine, a nun at the Benedictine abbey in Wilton, England.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Cathrine, including Cathrine of Aragon (1485-1536), the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and a key figure in the English Reformation. Another prominent Cathrine was Cathrine the Great (1729-1796), the influential Empress of Russia who presided over the Russian Enlightenment and expanded the Russian Empire.
In the realm of literature, Cathrine Sedgwick (1789-1867) was an American novelist and one of the most distinguished writers of her era, known for works such as "Hope Leslie" and "The Linwoods." Cathrine Beecher (1800-1878) was an American educator and author who played a pivotal role in promoting women's education and domestic science.
Cathrine Booth (1829-1890), the wife of William Booth, was a co-founder of the Salvation Army and a significant figure in the organization's early history. She was known for her dedication to social reform and her efforts to help the underprivileged.
People
Cathrine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Cathrine 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
Cathrine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Cathrine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,156 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Cathrine 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 82,472 US residents.
Is Cathrine a common name?
We classify Cathrine as "Rare". It ranks above 96.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,715 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Cathrine most popular?
The single biggest year for Cathrine was 1956, when 178 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Cathrine is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Cathrine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,775 people with the name Cathrine, or 1.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,059 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 Cathrine 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 Cathrine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Cathrine appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,767 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 Cathrine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Cathrine is White at 75.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.6%) and Hispanic (7.7%). 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 Cathrine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Cathrine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.7% (3,614 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 Cathrine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Cathrine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Cathrine 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 Cathrine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Cathrine 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 Cathrine 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 called Cathrine?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.