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Katja

#16,082 in 2025Girls' name

Form of Katya

Katja has been given to 949 babies in the U.S. since 1963. In 2025 it ranked #16,082 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 1998, with 48 recorded.

Babies named Katja, 2025

1 in 663,000

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Katja: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Katya

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Katja means

Katja is a form of Katya.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Katja is used in German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Dutch, Slovene and Croatian.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈkat.ja/ and /ˈkɑt.jaː/ for Katja.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Katja → Katya → Kate → Katherine → Catherine. The family’s proposed meaning is “each of the two”, recorded in English with the source elements hekáteros.

Origin, language, and formation

Katja is used in Danish, Faroese, Finnish, German, Ingrian, Slovene and Swedish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Katya and Kate.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Katja is pronounced /ˈkɑtjɑ/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 949 girls were recorded with the name Katja between 1963 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 48 in 1998; its best national rank was #2,782 in 1998.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #10,683 in 2020 to #16,082 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #7,434 in 2015 to #16,082 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 Katja?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,315,165 births
Among girls only
1 in 321,000
<0.01% of girls
Rank, 2025
#16,082
of 17,293 girls’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
459,581 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Katja 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 459,581 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Katja. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Katjas were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Katja was born before 1999 — so the typical Katja is around 26 today.

Median birth year
1999
About 26 years old
Biggest decade
1990s
26.7% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
44.4%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
949
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1990s — 26.7% of all recorded uses (253).

Is Katja 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
−5,409
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−5,399
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−8,648
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.31×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
10.4%
Peak was 1998 (48)
Years since peak
27
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
37.2% average annual change
Best rank ever
#2,782
1998

Spellings of Katja

Katja is not the most common spelling — Kayla is, with 24.4% against Katja's 0.07%.

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 Katja is used

Across 1910–2025, Katja was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — girls, against 1 in 691,527 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2New York1 in —
  3. 3Texas1 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. Katja has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Katja around the world

Where Katja 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
    1996–2016
    #5,785
    in 2016
  • France
    1967–2021
    #6,657
    in 2021
  • Norway
    1880–2017
    #481
    in 2017
  • Canada
    1996–2014
    #3,202
    in 2014
  • South Australia
    1954–2006
    #782
    in 2006

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, 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. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Katja by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#16,082
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 5,399
Best rank ever
#2,782
1998
Peak year
1998
48 that year
First recorded
1963
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
949
Count in 2025
5

Names similar to Katja

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

KattyKathyaKataraKathiaKatyaKatanaKatheKaterinKatianaKateeKateriKatiaKatyeKathaKatrinKateyKatrielKatoriKatheyKattieKateraKataliaKatalynaKaturah

Sibling names for Katja

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 Katja

Top names of 1998, Katja's peak yearThe 1990s in fullOther names that peaked in 1998Girls' names starting with KSlovenian Girl Names