Cathleen
given name · Latin script
Meaning: A spelling variant of Kathleen
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/ˌkæθˈɫin/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Cathleen is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In Antigua & Barbuda it is the most common given name.
- NLNetherlands1 in 142K(measured from records)
- AGAntigua & Barbuda≈1 in 205as Kathleen
- IEIreland≈1 in 339as Kathleen
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 Cathleen 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)
- #163 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 606 (measured from records)
- 1 in 142K (inferred from the name graph)
≈3,300,000 named Kathleen, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
One other spelling is counted as the same name:
Locally spelled Kathleen in US United States, GB United Kingdom, IE Ireland and 5 more.
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 spelling variant of Kathleen. Catriona [Caitriona] (f) A Gaelic form of Katherine, used by Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel of the same name (1893). The name is at present popular in Ireland. 31 Cavan
Sources 1
- Irish first names
Attested across 20 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Cathleen 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 | — | ≈3,300,000 est. | ≈1 in 427 | — | Kathleen | 41 |
| US United States | #65 | 547,321as Kathleen | 1 in 608 | 547K | Kathleen | 606 |
| GB United Kingdom | #78 | ≈160,000 est. | ≈1 in 415 | 4 | Kathleen | 293 |
| ID Indonesia | — | ≈130,000 est. | ≈1 in 2K | — | Cathleen | 50 |
| EG Egypt | #457 | ≈95,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | — | Kathleen | 24 |
| IE Ireland | #43 | ≈15,000 est. | ≈1 in 339 | 23 | Kathleen | 120 |
| NZ New Zealand | #83 | ≈11,000 est. | ≈1 in 467 | 11 | Kathleen | 127 |
| AG Antigua & Barbuda | #1 | ≈480 est. | ≈1 in 205 | — | Kathleen | 4 |
| NL Netherlands | — | 122 | 1 in 142K | 342 | Kathleen | 77 |
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; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017). 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)
Cathleen is also recorded in 3 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, A female given name from Irish, a less common spelling of Kathleen.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, Irish form of Catherine; pure virginal.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In German, ) Kathleen ['kae01i:n]: in den i96oer-Jahren aus dem Englischen über nommener weibl. Vom., englische Form des irischen Vornamens
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)
- Cathleen Nesbittb. 1888GBBritish actress (1888-1982)
- Cathleen Cordellb. 1915USAmerican actress (1915-1997)
- Cathleen Synge Morawetzb. 1923USCanadian mathematician (1923–2017)
- Cathy Rigbyb. 1952USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, speaker, and former artistic gymnast (born 1952)
- Nomaindia Mfeketob. 1952ZAnot in their usual nameSouth African politician
- Cathleen Schineb. 1953USAmerican writer
- Bo Derekb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
- Cathleen Rundb. 1977DEGerman swimmer
- Margo Harshmanb. 1986USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress
- Cathleen Sutherlandb. 2000USproducer
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 47 sources across 30 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 25K | #1,400 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1958 | 1.2K | — |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018) | — | 122 | #4,915 |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 47 | #12,299 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 25 | #1,400 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 10 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 1964 | 5 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 1993 | 4 | #547 |
| GB United Kingdom | NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present) | 2025 | — | — |
| GB United Kingdom | A Concise Dictionary of First Names (Hanks & Hodges, 2001) | — | — | — |
| IE Ireland | Irish First Names (Coghlan, 1985) | — | — | — |
| NL Netherlands | Babynamen — Lijst met meer dan 22.000 namen (Amelia King, 2020) | — | — | — |
Reference works 2
- 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
- Where does the name Cathleen come from?
- A spelling variant of Kathleen. Catriona [Caitriona] (f) A Gaelic form of Katherine, used by Robert Louis Stevenson in his novel of the same name (1893). The name is at present popular in Ireland. Recorded by Irish first names.
- What are other forms of the name Cathleen?
- In the etymology graph, Kathleen, Catherine and Katherine are forms of the same name in other languages.
- How do you pronounce Cathleen?
- A machine transcription gives /ˌkæθˈɫin/ (IPA) for English.
- What does the name Cathleen mean?
- Recorded meaning: A spelling variant of Kathleen.
- Is Cathleen a male or female name?
- Cathleen 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.
- In which country does Cathleen have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 3.3 million people named Kathleen in China, more than in any other country we hold.
- Where is Cathleen most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Cathleen is densest in the Netherlands — about 1 in 142 thousand people — even though China holds more of our records for it.
- How common is the name Cathleen?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 122 people named Cathleen, about 1 in 142 thousand residents.
- How common is Cathleen compared with other names?
- In Antigua & Barbuda, Cathleen is the most common given name of 3,327 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Cathleen?
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/cathleenThe 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, “Cathleen” — the most common given name in Antigua & Barbuda. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.