Kathy
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A diminutive of the female given names Katherine or Kathleen, also used as a formal given name
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˈkæθi/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Kathy is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Singapore it is the 32nd most common given name.
- CNChina≈1 in 552(inferred from the name graph)
- IEIreland≈1 in 594
- CACanada≈1 in 643
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Kathy itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #179 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 594 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 552 (inferred from the name graph)
≈2,500,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
China, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Cathy in CN China.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
A diminutive of the female given names Katherine or Kathleen, also used as a formal given name.
Sources 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 14 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Kathy counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈2,500,000 est. | ≈1 in 552 | — | Cathy | 76 |
| US United States | #76 | 288,053 | 1 in 1.2K | 288K | Kathy | 594 |
| GB United Kingdom | #134 | ≈67,000 est. | ≈1 in 988 | 36 | Kathy | 269 |
| CA Canada | #49 | ≈59,000 est. | ≈1 in 643 | 14 | Kathy | 286 |
| IT Italy | #195 | ≈46,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | 1 | Kathy | 54 |
| FI Finland | — | 10,946as Kati | 1 in 509 | 12K | — | 17 |
| IE Ireland | #53 | ≈8,700 est. | ≈1 in 594 | 192 | Kathy | 102 |
| SG Singapore | #32 | ≈8,600 est. | ≈1 in 720 | — | Kathy | 89 |
| NZ New Zealand | #77 | ≈7,300 est. | ≈1 in 678 | 11 | Kathy | 120 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register); DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Kathy is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
Pet form of Katherine and its variants.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
In German, weibl. Vom., Schreibvariante von
as a nameDUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Kathy Ackerb. 1947USAmerican novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet (1947–1997)
- Kathy Reichsb. 1948USAmerican writer and forensic anthropologist
- Kathy Bakerb. 1950USAmerican actress (born 1950)
- Kathy Kinneyb. 1954USAmerican actress
- Kathy Najimyb. 1957USAmerican actress
- Kathy Hochulb. 1958US57th governor of state New York since 2021
- Kathy Hiltonb. 1959USAmerican actress and television personality (born 1959)
- Kathy Jordanb. 1959USUS tennis player
- Kathy Smallwood-Cookb. 1960GBAthletics (sport) competitor
- Kathy Burkeb. 1964GBBritish actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 77 sources across 45 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 288K | #181 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 225 | #181 |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 70 | #3,900 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 48 | — |
| FI Finland | DVV — Etunimitilasto (Finnish given names register) | — | 34 | — |
| FI Finland | DVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup) | — | 25 | #16,924 |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 1977 | 11 | — |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 5 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1988 | 5 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 1997 | 3 | #358 |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 1 | #2,418 |
| IT Italy | ISTAT — Contanomi newborn per-name series (1999–2024, JSONP backend) | 2024 | 1 | #14,642 |
Reference works 3
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Kathy mean, and where does it come from?
- A diminutive of the female given names Katherine or Kathleen, also used as a formal given name. Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Kathy?
- In the etymology graph, Karen, Catherine and Tina are forms of the same name in other languages; Katie, Kayla and Kaylee are recorded short or pet forms; it is recorded as a short form of Katherine and Kathryn.
- Is Kathy a male or female name?
- Kathy is a female name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.
- How common is the name Kathy?
- In the United States, the national register counted 288,053 people named Kathy in 2020, about 1 in 1.2 thousand residents.
- How common is Kathy compared with other names?
- In Singapore, Kathy is the 32nd most common given name of 52,448 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Kathy?
- A machine transcription gives /ˈkæθi/ (IPA) for English.
- In which country does Kathy have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 2.5 million people named Kathy in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled cathy.
What do you want to know about Kathy?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/kathyThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Kathy” — the 32nd most common given name in Singapore. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.