Catherine: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Catherine has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 145 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1880 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 668,624 births with this name, split between 666,802 girls and 1,822 boys. Because the larger side of that split is girls, this page follows the girls ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Catherine was 1956, when 12,057 girls received the name and it reached rank 28 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1956, Catherine accounted for 0.60% of all recorded girls births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Catherine by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Catherine becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Catherine can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

During the 1880s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 31 and 8,915 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1890s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 36 and 14,502 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1900s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 22 and 22,007 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1910s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 18 and 65,823 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1920s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 21 and 78,881 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1930s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 35 and 50,026 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1940s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 37 and 62,086 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1950s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 28 and 108,837 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table.

During the 1960s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 42 and 76,787 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1970s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 59 and 43,864 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1980s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 65 and 42,435 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1990s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 71 and 40,759 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 2000s, Catherine stayed inside the top 100 for girls, with a best rank of 81 and 29,701 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. In the 2010s, Catherine recorded 17,151 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 161, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 2020s, Catherine recorded 5,028 births for girls across the decade, with a best annual rank of 267, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among girls, and the share of all girls births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 1,612 to 955, a change of -40.8 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Catherine stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Catherine recorded 3,802 births for girls, and in 2010 it recorded 1,612. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Catherine also appears on the boys side of the file, with 1,822 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 666,802 births recorded for girls, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the girls table only. Counting both sides together, Catherine totals 668,624 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 88 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among girls and a rank earned among boys describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Catherine with the full rankings for its peak year (1956) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Catherine were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 955 girls named Catherine, ranked 320 among girls that year.

When was Catherine most popular?
Catherine peaked in 1956 with 12,057 births for girls, reaching rank 28 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Catherine appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 668,624 births named Catherine from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/