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Cate

#8,976 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly each of the two, through Catherine

Cate has been given to 1,789 babies in the U.S. since 1980. In 2025 it ranked #8,976 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2008, with 152 recorded.

Babies named Cate, 2025

1 in 301,000

Cate over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Cate: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly each of the two, through Catherine

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Cate means

Cate belongs to the name family reached through Cate → Catherine. Its meaning is “each of the two”.

Origin, language, and formation

Cate is used in English and Afar.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Catherine.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Afar, Cate is pronounced /ħaˈte/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,789 girls were recorded with the name Cate between 1980 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 152 in 2008; its best national rank was #1,529 in 2008.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #6,376 in 2020 to #8,976 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #2,938 in 2015 to #8,976 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Cate?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 301,000
11 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 146,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#8,976
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
208,901 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Cate sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 208,901 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Cate. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Cates were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Cate was born before 2008 — so the typical Cate is around 17 today.

Median birth year
2008
About 17 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
52.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
89.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,789
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 52.1% of all recorded uses (932).

Is Cate rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−3,933
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−2,600
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−6,038
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.19×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
7.2%
Peak was 2008 (152)
Years since peak
17
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
26.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,529
2008

Spellings of Cate

Cate is not the most common spelling — Jane is, with 22.4% against Cate's 0.11%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Cate is used

Across 1910–2025, Cate was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 188,172 across all states with data. It was least common in Washington (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in 100,000
  2. 2Illinois1 in 100,000
  3. 3New York1 in 100,000
  4. 4Texas1 in 100,000
  5. 5Arkansas1 in —
  6. 6Connecticut1 in —
  7. 7Florida1 in —
  8. 8Georgia1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Cate has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Cate around the world

Where Cate ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1999–2016
    #4,096
    in 2016
  • Scotland
    2002–2009
    #668
    in 2009
  • Northern Ireland
    2004–2016
    #440
    in 2016
  • Ireland
    2002–2017
    #873
    in 2017
  • Canada
    1999–2021
    #3,354
    in 2021
  • South Australia
    1964–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Cate by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#8,976
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 2,600
Best rank ever
#1,529
2008
Peak year
2008
152 that year
First recorded
1980
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,789
Count in 2025
11

Names similar to Cate

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CatieTateCatyCathiCatheyCattleyaCatoriCatlinCaterinaCatiaCatinaCatelynCatarinaCatlynCathieCatalayaCatheCatrinaCathernCatriceCataliaCateraCatherynNate

Sibling names for Cate

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Cate

Top names of 2008, Cate's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2008Girls' names starting with C