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Katharina

#6,439 in 2025Girls' name

Possibly Hecate or each of the two, through Katarina

Katharina has been given to 2,121 babies in the U.S. since 1881. In 2025 it ranked #6,439 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1991, with 58 recorded.

Babies named Katharina, 2025

1 in 184,000

Katharina over time, 1880–2025

Girls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Katharina: meaning, origin, and history

Possibly Hecate or each of the two, through Katarina

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Katharina means

Katharina belongs to the name family reached through Katharina → Katarina → Αἰκατερίνη. Its meaning is “Hecate or each of the two”.

Origin, language, and formation

Katharina is used in Danish, German and Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Catherine, Katarina and Αἰκατερίνη.

Pronunciation and spelling

In German, Katharina is pronounced [kataˈʁiːna].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,121 girls were recorded with the name Katharina between 1881 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 58 in 1991; its best national rank was #787 in 1881.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #5,748 in 2020 to #6,439 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #4,656 in 2015 to #6,439 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 Katharina?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 184,000
18 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 89,300
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#6,439
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
127,662 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Katharina 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 127,662 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Katharina. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Katharinas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Katharina was born before 1991 — so the typical Katharina is around 34 today.

Median birth year
1991
About 34 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
21.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
29.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
1,906
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 21.3% of all recorded uses (451).

Is Katharina 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
+974
Places climbed
Rank vs 5 years ago
−691
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−1,783
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.60×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
31.0%
Peak was 1991 (58)
Years since peak
34
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
23.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#787
1881

Spellings of Katharina

Katharina is not the most common spelling — Katherine is, with 75.3% against Katharina's 0.25%.

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 Katharina is used

Across 1910–2025, Katharina was most concentrated in California — about 1 in 100,000 girls, against 1 in 253,549 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. 2New York1 in 100,000
  3. 3Colorado1 in —
  4. 4Florida1 in —
  5. 5Illinois1 in —
  6. 6New Jersey1 in —
  7. 7Texas1 in —
  8. 8Virginia1 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. Katharina has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Katharina around the world

Where Katharina 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
    1996–2011
    #4,764
    in 2011
  • Ireland
    1970–1976
    #429
    in 1976
  • France
    1906–2025
    #6,149
    in 2025
  • Norway
    1880–2022
    #436
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #3,027
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1952–2011
    #840
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Katharina

People whose public names include Katharina, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Katharina in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Katharina. Linked forms have their own page here.

KateKatyCarinCathyKarenKarinKathyKatiaKatieKatjaKatriKatyaCathieCatrinKareenKathieKatrinCathrynKatalinKatrinaKatrineCatalinaCatarinaCaterina

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Katharina by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#6,439
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 691
Best rank ever
#787
1881
Peak year
1991
58 that year
First recorded
1881
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
2,121
Count in 2025
18

Names similar to Katharina

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

KatherinaKathalinaKaterinaKatalinaKatarinaKathrinaKatheryneMichelinaKatherinAugustinaKatinaCelestinaKataleyaCarmelinaKatrinaKattaleyaKatelynneMarcelinaJosephinaKhristinaKatheleenSeraphinaKatalynaKathaleen

Names with a curve like Katharina

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Katharina, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

MaryelizabethMyriamLanaeJoriKayleneJannetMirianMariaelenaRaeannSindyLeeannaSeptember

Sibling names for Katharina

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 Katharina

Top names of 1991, Katharina's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1881Girls' names starting with KUncommon German Girl Names