Catlyn
Catlyn is a feminine name blending the names Catherine and Lynn.
Name Census estimates that about 590 living Americans carry the first name Catlyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Catlyn today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Catlyn births was 2000 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Catlyn. 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.
People living today
590
~ 1 in 580,940 Americans
Peak year
2000
41 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
2018 SSA rank
#16,167
Tracked since 1985
Census
Catlyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 829 people with the first name Catlyn, which placed it at #14,252 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
#14,252
National first-name rank
People counted
829
829 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Catlyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catlyn is White at 80.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.3%) and Black (5.3%). 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 Catlyn 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 Catlyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.2% · 665
- Hispanic or Latino8.3% · 69
- Black or African American5.3% · 44
- Two or more races2.7% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 8
Popularity
Catlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Catlyn from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 292 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Catlyn 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 Catlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Catlyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Catlyn, while Tennessee, Illinois, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Catlyn
The name Catlyn is a relatively modern rendition of the traditional English name Caitlin or Cateline, which itself is derived from the ancient Irish Gaelic name Caitlín. The name Caitlín can be traced back to the 8th century and is believed to have originated in Ireland, though it did not gain widespread popularity until several centuries later.
Caitlín is a feminine diminutive form of the Irish name Caitír, which comes from the Old Irish word "cáid" meaning "pure" or "holy." The name Caitír itself may have roots in the Latin word "catus" meaning "wise" or "prudent." The addition of the diminutive suffix "-ín" transformed Caitír into the endearing form Caitlín, signifying a "little pure one" or "little wise one."
While the name Caitlín has a long history in Ireland, it did not appear in written records until the 16th century. One of the earliest documented instances of the name was in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history compiled in the early 17th century. The name Caitlín is mentioned in reference to a woman named Caitlín Dubh ("Caitlín the Dark-haired") who lived in the 15th century.
Throughout the centuries, several notable Irish women bore the name Caitlín or its variations. Caitlín Ní Uallacháin (born c. 1615), was a renowned Irish poetess and composer who lived during the 17th century. Caitlín Bán (c. 1680 – c. 1760) was an influential Irish folk singer and storyteller from County Cork. Caitlín Frumious (1855 – 1924) was a respected Irish historian and author who wrote extensively about Irish culture and folklore.
As the name spread beyond Ireland, it underwent various spellings and adaptations. The modern variant Catlyn emerged in the late 20th century, likely influenced by the popularity of similar names like Caitlin and Kaitlyn. While not as common as its traditional Irish counterpart, Catlyn has been used as a first name for several individuals, including Catlyn Jennings (born 1972), an American singer-songwriter, and Catlyn Stemrich (born 1989), a Canadian volleyball player.
Ultimately, the name Catlyn, like its ancestral forms, carries a sense of purity, wisdom, and diminutive endearment rooted in its ancient Irish origins. Though a relatively recent spelling, it remains connected to a rich cultural and linguistic heritage spanning over a millennium.
People
Catlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Catlyn 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
Catlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Catlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 590 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Catlyn 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 580,940 US residents.
Is Catlyn a common name?
We classify Catlyn as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 607 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Catlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Catlyn was 2000, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Catlyn is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Catlyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 829 people with the name Catlyn, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,252 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 Catlyn 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 Catlyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Catlyn leans strongly female. 820 people counted with this name were female (97.4%), compared with 22 male bearers (2.6%). 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 Catlyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Catlyn is White at 80.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.3%) and Black (5.3%). 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 Catlyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Catlyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.2% (665 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 Catlyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Catlyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Catlyn 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 Catlyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Catlyn 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 Catlyn 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 common is the name Catlyn?
See how many Americans are named Catlyn on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.