Kathlyn
A feminine name of Greek origin meaning "pure beauty" or "pure form".
Name Census estimates that about 2,967 living Americans carry the first name Kathlyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Kathlyn today is around 49 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kathlyn births was 1951 (125 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kathlyn. 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 Kathlyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.0K
~ 1 in 115,522 Americans
Peak year
1951
125 babies that year
Average age
49
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,725
Tracked since 1897
Census
Kathlyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,642 people with the first name Kathlyn, which placed it at #4,905 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
#4,905
National first-name rank
People counted
3.6K
3,642 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kathlyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathlyn is White at 74.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%) and Hispanic (7.4%). 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 Kathlyn 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 Kathlyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.7% · 2,719
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.3% · 304
- Hispanic or Latino7.4% · 269
- Black or African American6.7% · 245
- Two or more races2.4% · 86
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 19
Popularity
Kathlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kathlyn 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 851 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
Kathlyn 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 Kathlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kathlyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. California, Texas, Illinois recorded the most babies named Kathlyn, while New Jersey, Massachusetts, Kentucky recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 67 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kathlyn
The name Kathlyn is a variant spelling of the English name Cathleen, which is derived from the Irish Gaelic name Caitlín. Caitlín is a diminutive form of the ancient Irish name Cáit, which comes from the Old Irish cáed meaning "pure."
The name Cáit has been used in Ireland since the early medieval period. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name is Saint Cáit, a 6th-century Irish princess and nun who founded a monastery in Inishcaltra. The spelling Kathlyn began appearing in the 19th century, likely influenced by the growing popularity of names with a "lyn" ending.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name Kathlyn was Kathlyn Williams (1879-1960), an American silent film actress who starred in several serials and feature films in the 1910s and 1920s. Another early Kathlyn was Kathlyn Hilliard (1900-1948), an American actress and dancer who appeared in Broadway musicals and Hollywood films in the 1920s and 1930s.
In the literary world, Kathlyn Michaels (1943-2012) was an American writer and editor who published several novels and short story collections. Kathlyn Gillette Hendricks (born 1945) is an American writer, teacher, and co-author of several books on relationships and conscious living.
In the field of science, Kathlyn Cooney (1922-2015) was an American chemist and educator who made significant contributions to the study of carbohydrate chemistry and mentored numerous students during her long career at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kathlyn is a name with deep roots in Irish history and culture, dating back to the early medieval period. Its variant spelling with the "lyn" ending emerged more recently, but the name has been borne by notable figures across various fields throughout the 20th century.
People
Kathlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kathlyn as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kathlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kathlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,967 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kathlyn 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 115,522 US residents.
Is Kathlyn a common name?
We classify Kathlyn as "Rare". It ranks above 95.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,128 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kathlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Kathlyn was 1951, when 125 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kathlyn is about 49 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kathlyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,642 people with the name Kathlyn, or 1.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,905 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 Kathlyn 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 Kathlyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kathlyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 3,632 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Kathlyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kathlyn is White at 74.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%) and Hispanic (7.4%). 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 Kathlyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kathlyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.7% (2,719 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 Kathlyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kathlyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kathlyn 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 Kathlyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kathlyn 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 Kathlyn 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 have the name Kathlyn?
Want to know how many people have the name Kathlyn? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.