Catherine

given name · Latin script

Meaning, in English: In legend, Trojan princess with the gift of prophecy; also used as an independent name

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

/kæθəɹɪn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Catherine is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Russia than in any other country, where it is the 16th most common given name.

rarermore common
  • CNChina≈1 in 668(inferred from the name graph)
  • BYBelarus≈1 in 41as Екатерина
  • CZCzechia1 in 45as Kateřina

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 Catherine 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.

Russia (inferred from the name graph)

≈2,600,000 named Екатерина, est.

#18 (measured from records)

of 15M given names

9 (measured from records)

recorded for this name

Sources
624 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 264 (inferred from the name graph)

France, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Spellings & scripts(measured from records)

CatherineLatin(measured from records)
ЕкатеринаCyrillic(measured from records)
קתריןHebrew(measured from records)
ეკათერინეGeorgian(measured from records)
ԵկատերինաArmenian(measured from records)
แคทรีนThai(measured from records)
ΚαθρινGreek(measured from records)
ক্যাথরিনBengali(measured from records)
캐서린Hangul(measured from records)

7 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Екатерина in RU Russia, BY Belarus, CN China, Ekaterina in CZ Czechia, MD Moldova, Катерина in UA Ukraine and Ekaterine in FR France.

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)

From Greek Aikaterinē; meaning uncertain, later associated with Greek katharos 'pure'.

Sources 1

  • Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

Attested across 20 languages in the etymology graph.

How Catherine is read(measured from records)

Catherine is one spelling over 2 language communities, and the dictionaries record it differently in 2 of them. Each row is what a source recorded for that language, beside the share of this name’s records the language holds. No single row is the name’s meaning.

  • English69%

    In legend, Trojan princess with the gift of prophecy; also used as an independent name

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

    Pure; from Greek katharos. Also used as an independent name.

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

    A female given name from Ancient Greek.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • French15%

    From Greek Aikaterinē; meaning uncertain, later associated with Greek katharos 'pure'.

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

    From Greek Aikaterinē; etymology uncertain, often linked to 'pure'.

    as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)

The share is ours — how much of this name’s records each language holds. The sense beside it is the source’s, quoted and credited, including where it names a gender. We do not publish a gender of our own per language: our records carry one figure for the spelling as a whole.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Catherine 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.

Where Catherine is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
RU Russia#16≈2,600,000 est.≈1 in 54#13Екатерина287
CN China—≈2,100,000 est.≈1 in 668—Екатерина76
UA Ukraine#25≈550,000 est.≈1 in 79listedКатерина160
US United States#29470,588as Katherine1 in 707470KCatherine624
FR France—≈260,000 est.≈1 in 264395KEkaterine80
CZ Czechia#503236,254as Kateřina1 in 45236KEkaterina62
BY Belarus#14≈230,000 est.≈1 in 4116Екатерина70
MD Moldova#44443,869as Ecaterina1 in 7744KEkaterina31

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; INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); MVČR — living population register 2017; Universal Dependencies Belarusian-HSE Corpus — Person Names (UD_Belarusian-HSE); e-services.md — living population register. 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Catherine is also recorded as 7 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French given name32 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, United States, Philippines, Peru

    Languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese

    Also written Cathérine, Cathèrine, Çatherine, Càtherine, Catherîne

  • a separate name3 spellings in the group

    Also written Cátherine, Cathérine

  • Russian given name124 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Russia, Poland, Czechia

    Languages: Russian, Polish, Czech

    Also written Катрин, Katherine, Kathryn, Katrin, Кэтрин

  • Indonesian given name6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, United States

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay, Malagasy

    Also written 'Catherine, Cathérine

  • Italian given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Italy, United Kingdom, San Marino

    Also written Cathérine

  • Hungarian given name5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, United States, United Kingdom, Finland

    Languages: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Cathérine

  • French (Côte d’Ivoire) given name2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Côte d’Ivoire

    Also written Cathérine

85 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Catherine is also recorded in one other lexicon, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • 2 Variant spelling of Katherine. This form of the name is also used in France. Variant: Catharine (English only). Short form: Cath. Pet form: Cathy.

    as a nameA concise dictionary of first names

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)

1400160018002000Catherine of Valois, b. 1401Catherine Howard, b. 1523Catherine II of Russia, b. 1729Pat Nixon, b. 1912Niki de Saint Phalle, b. 1930Michèle Laroque, b. 1960Catherine Zeta-Jones, b. 1969Katherine Heigl, b. 1978Catherine, Princess of Wales, b. 1982Kate Bosworth, b. 1983

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)

InformalHi Catherine,

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 131 sources across 70 countries.

Official registers attesting Catherine
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020410K#113
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)2024395K#1,035
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025972—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020345#113
CZ CzechiaMVČR — living population register 2017—136#1,150
CZ Czechianaše jména — 2016 MVČR snapshot—68#1,211
MD Moldovae-services.md — living population register—42#1,448
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024)194830#463

Reference works 6

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

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 are other forms of the name Catherine?
In the etymology graph, Karen, Kathleen and Katherine are forms of the same name in other languages; Cathy is a recorded short or pet form.
Where does the name Catherine come from?
From Greek Aikaterinē; meaning uncertain, later associated with Greek katharos 'pure'. Recorded by Le grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education).
Is Catherine a male or female name?
Catherine 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 do you pronounce Catherine?
A machine transcription gives /kæθəɹɪn/ (IPA) for English.
What does the name Catherine mean?
In English, In legend, Trojan princess with the gift of prophecy; also used as an independent name
How common is the name Catherine?
In the United States, the national register counted 470,588 people named Katherine in 2020, about 1 in 707 residents.
How common is Catherine compared with other names?
In Russia, Catherine is the 16th most common given name of 472,143 given names recorded there.
In which country does Catherine have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 2.6 million people named Екатерина in Russia, more than in any other country we hold.

What do you want to know about Catherine?

Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.

Please leave out anyone's personal details (see Privacy).

Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/catherine

The 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, “Catherine” — the 16th most common given name in Russia. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Catherine parses inside a full name →