Katharine

Locally spelled Екатерина in RU Russia, BY Belarus, Ekaterina in CZ Czechia, MD Moldova, Catherine in US United States and Катерина in UA Ukraine.

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.

Attested across 19 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Katharine, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Cathy
• Cathryn
• Cate
• Caitlyn
• Caitlin
• Cat
• Cait
• Ryn
• Elizabeth
• Jennifer
• Lauren
• Sarah

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Katharine 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 Ancient Greek.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, Czech; pure; see Catherine

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

• Variant of KATHERINE , the preferred form in America. The spelling has been affected by folk-etymological association with Greek katharos pure.

  as a word

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.

• Marie of Saxe-Altenburgb. 1818DEnot in their usual nameQueen consort of Hanover (1818–1907)
• Anna Katharine Greenb. 1846USAmerican novelist (1846–1935)
• Dorothea Douglassb. 1878GBnot in their usual nameEnglish tennis and badminton player (1878–1960)
• Katharine Hepburnb. 1907USAmerican actress (1907–2003)
• Katharine Grahamb. 1917USAmerican publisher, editor and author
• Katharine Worsleyb. 1933GBmember of the British royal family (1933–2025)
• Katharine Rossb. 1940USAmerican actress
• Katharine Houghtonb. 1945USAmerican actress, playwright
• Katharine Isabelleb. 1981CACanadian actress
• Katharine McPheeb. 1984USAmerican recording artist, singer and songwriter

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).

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.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

What are other forms of the name Katharine?

In the etymology graph, Kathleen, Catherine and Katherine are forms of the same name in other languages.

What does the name Katharine mean, and where does it come from?

Variant of Katherine, associated by folk etymology with Greek katharos ‘pure’. Recorded by A concise dictionary of first names.

How do you pronounce Katharine?

A machine transcription gives /kat̪əɹɪn/ (IPA) for English.

In which country does Katharine have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 2.6 million people named Екатерина in Russia, more than in any other country we hold.

How common is the name Katharine?

In the United States, the national register counted 470,588 people named Katherine in 2020, about 1 in 707 residents.

How common is Katharine compared with other names?

In Russia, Katharine is the 16th most common given name of 472,143 given names recorded there.

Is Katharine a male or female name?

Katharine is a female name. National registers that list it by sex list it as female: United States (Census Bureau, 2020), Brazil (IBGE, 2022), Netherlands (Meertens NVB) and Finland (DVV).