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Kathlyn

#4,817 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Caitlín

Kathlyn has been given to 5,156 babies in the U.S. since 1897. In 2025 it ranked #4,817 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1951, with 125 recorded.

Babies named Kathlyn, 2025

1 in 118,000

Kathlyn over time, 1880–2025

Girls
05010015018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Kathlyn: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Caitlín

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Kathlyn means

Kathlyn is a form of Caitlín.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Kathlyn → Caitlín → Caitríona → Catherine → Αἰκατερίνη. The family’s proposed meaning is “Hecate or each of the two”, recorded in Ancient Greek with the source elements Hekátē and hekáteros.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Caitlín.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 5,156 girls were recorded with the name Kathlyn between 1897 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 125 in 1951; its best national rank was #559 in 1914.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #10,682 in 2020 to #4,817 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #5,931 in 2015 to #4,817 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 Kathlyn?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 118,000
28 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 57,400
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#4,817
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
82,069 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Kathlyn 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 82,069 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Kathlyn. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Kathlyns were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Kathlyn was born before 1953 — so the typical Kathlyn is around 72 today.

Median birth year
1953
About 72 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
16.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
11.8%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
2,987
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 16.5% of all recorded uses (851).

Is Kathlyn 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
−2,082
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+5,865
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+1,114
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.27×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
22.4%
Peak was 1951 (125)
Years since peak
74
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
59.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#559
1914

Spellings of Kathlyn

Kathlyn is not the most common spelling — Kathleen is, with 34.8% against Kathlyn'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 Kathlyn is used

Across 1910–2025, Kathlyn was most concentrated in Illinois — about 1 in 33,333 girls, against 1 in 81,286 across all states with data. It was least common in Pennsylvania (1 in —).

03 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Illinois1 in 33,333
  2. 2California1 in 50,000
  3. 3Iowa1 in 50,000
  4. 4Michigan1 in 50,000
  5. 5Texas1 in 50,000
  6. 6Florida1 in 100,000
  7. 7Louisiana1 in 100,000
  8. 8Minnesota1 in 100,000

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. Kathlyn has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Kathlyn around the world

Where Kathlyn 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
    1998–2004
    #3,197
    in 2004
  • Scotland
    1986–1986
    #565
    in 1986
  • Ireland
    1994–2015
    #896
    in 2015
  • France
    1978–2022
    #7,693
    in 2022
  • Canada
    1991–2020
    #2,936
    in 2020
  • South Australia
    1944–2008
    #796
    in 2008

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, 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 Kathlyn

People whose public names include Kathlyn, 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.

Kathlyn by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#4,817
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 5,865
Best rank ever
#559
1914
Peak year
1951
125 that year
First recorded
1897
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
5,156
Count in 2025
28

Names similar to Kathlyn

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

KatlynKatilynKatelynKataleyaKattieKatherinKaterinaJerilynKatalinaKathelynKatarinaKarolynJazzlynKateriKatlynnKatianaKaterinShaelynMarylynKathernKatiaKathyrnAddalynEmmalyn

Names with a curve like Kathlyn

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

HerlindaJonnieJaneyLonnieKathaleenDrucillaZenobiaMerrillMerylDrusillaGeorgettaMarita

Sibling names for Kathlyn

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 Kathlyn

Top names of 1951, Kathlyn's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1914Girls' names starting with K