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Girl · Greek (origin unknown)
Katalin
Say it: KAW-taw-leen
Meaning
From Greek Aikaterine, whose origin is unknown; the link to katharos 'pure' is a later folk etymology that changed the spelling.
Disputedsharp disagreement, or a popular meaning that is not supported.
In Hungarian use since the Middle Ages through the cult of Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
Its wave through time
Rare in the records
In the United States
- 394 babies given this name since 1957
- At its height in 1988, about 1 in 77,400 girls
- Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020
Through the ages
- The High and Late Middle Ages1100 to 1450
- The Renaissance1400 to 1600
- The Age of Revolutions1750 to 1837
- Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
- The Modern Age1880 to today
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Kata, Kati
| English | Catherine |
|---|---|
| German | Katharina |
| Romanian | Ecaterina |
| Greek | Aikaterini |
Famous bearers
- Katalin Karikó, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- Calendars of saints and name days
- Parish baptism registers
- National birth statistics of European countries source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.