Katlyn
A feminine name of English origin, a variant spelling of Katelyn or Caitlyn.
Name Census estimates that about 17,899 living Americans carry the first name Katlyn. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Katlyn today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Katlyn births was 1995 (1,260 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Katlyn. 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 Katlyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1990s, recent registration numbers for Katlyn have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
18K
~ 1 in 19,149 Americans
Peak year
1995
1,260 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
1989 SSA rank
#5,504
Tracked since 1979
Census
Katlyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 17,214 people with the first name Katlyn, which placed it at #1,755 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
#1,755
National first-name rank
People counted
17K
17,214 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
5.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Katlyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katlyn is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.1%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Katlyn 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 Katlyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.3% · 14,518
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 1,056
- Two or more races3.8% · 649
- Black or African American3.7% · 636
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 222
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 133
Gender
Gender distribution for Katlyn
Out of the 18,426 babies given the name Katlyn 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.
Katlyn as a male name
- Ranked #8,572 in 1989
- 5 male births in 1989
- Peak: 1989 (5 births)
Katlyn as a female name
- Ranked #5,504 in 2024
- 23 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1995 (1,260 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Katlyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 17,216 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Katlyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Katlyn from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 10,718 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
Katlyn 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 Katlyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Katlyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Katlyn, while Rhode Island, Alaska, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 355 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Katlyn
The name Katlyn is derived from the Greek name Aikaterine, which in turn originated from the Greek words "katharos" meaning "pure" and "hekatos" meaning "each of the two hundreds." This name was later Latinized to Catherina and eventually evolved into Catherine, the French variation being Catheryn.
The name Katlyn is an English diminutive form of the name Catherine, with the addition of the suffix "-lyn," which is of Old English origin. This suffix was commonly used to create pet forms or diminutives of longer names, particularly in the Middle Ages.
Although the name Katlyn has its roots in Greek and Latin, it gained popularity in the English-speaking world, particularly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. The earliest recorded instances of the name Katlyn can be traced back to the late 19th century, although it did not become widely used until the 20th century.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Katlyn was Katlyn Thomas (1884-1962), an American author and journalist who wrote several books on the American frontier and the Old West. Another notable figure was Katlyn Carter (1903-1987), a British politician and activist who campaigned for women's rights and social reforms.
In the world of literature, Katlyn Eriksen (1928-2002) was a Norwegian novelist and playwright who won the Nordic Council's Literature Prize in 1976 for her novel "The Circle of Life." Katlyn Radcliffe (1941-2017) was a renowned Australian artist known for her vibrant abstract paintings and her contributions to the modern art movement.
Another notable Katlyn was Katlyn Sinclair (1952-2010), a Canadian environmentalist and conservationist who dedicated her life to protecting the boreal forests of Canada and raising awareness about the impact of logging and resource extraction on these fragile ecosystems.
These are just a few examples of individuals who have carried the name Katlyn throughout history, each making their mark in various fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of human experience.
People
Katlyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Katlyn 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
Katlyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Katlyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 17,899 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Katlyn 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 19,149 US residents.
Is Katlyn a common name?
We classify Katlyn as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18,426 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Katlyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Katlyn was 1995, when 1,260 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Katlyn is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Katlyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 17,214 people with the name Katlyn, or 5.70 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,755 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 Katlyn 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 Katlyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Katlyn appears almost entirely female. Of the 17,216 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 Katlyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Katlyn is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.1%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Katlyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Katlyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (14,518 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 Katlyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Katlyn a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Katlyn 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 Katlyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Katlyn 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 Katlyn 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 Katlyn?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Katlyn on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.