Caitlin
Caitlin was given to 78 girls in 2025, #2,333 among girls’ names; 112,426 Americans have been recorded with it since 1955 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 110,000 Americans named Caitlin and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 33 years old and half are between 26 and 37.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Caitlin by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Caitlin mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Caitlin is “a female given name from Irish Caitlín, equivalent to English Catherine.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Caitlin?
#2,333 among girls’ names, 2025
Caitlin fell from #610 in 2015 to #2,333 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.27 to 0.05 per 1,000.
7,274 babies in 1988, the peak
Caitlin peaked in 1988, when 7,274 babies were given it (7,246 girls, #44 among girls’ names). The 78 births of 2025 are 1% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 78 | #2,333 | 0.05 |
| 2024 | 121 | #1,684 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 80 | #2,290 | 0.05 |
| 2022 | 86 | #2,194 | 0.05 |
| 2021 | 85 | #2,190 | 0.05 |
| 2020 | 110 | #1,794 | 0.07 |
| 2019 | 142 | #1,524 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 166 | #1,360 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 161 | #1,418 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 218 | #1,152 | 0.12 |
Every recorded year (71)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 477 | #610 | 0.27 |
| 2014 | 628 | #496 | 0.35 |
| 2013 | 654 | #468 | 0.37 |
| 2012 | 741 | #424 | 0.42 |
| 2011 | 803 | #393 | 0.46 |
| 2010 | 945 | #339 | 0.53 |
| 2009 | 1,216 | #267 | 0.66 |
| 2008 | 1,459 | #235 | 0.77 |
| 2007 | 1,530 | #230 | 0.80 |
| 2006 | 1,653 | #209 | 0.87 |
| 2005 | 1,778 | #193 | 1.0 |
| 2004 | 2,050 | #161 | 1.1 |
| 2003 | 2,311 | #142 | 1.3 |
| 2002 | 2,743 | #123 | 1.5 |
| 2001 | 3,456 | #89 | 1.9 |
| 2000 | 4,102 | #76 | 2.3 |
| 1999 | 3,461 | #93 | 2.0 |
| 1998 | 4,175 | #78 | 2.4 |
| 1997 | 3,862 | #88 | 2.2 |
| 1996 | 4,268 | #84 | 2.4 |
| 1995 | 4,384 | #81 | 2.5 |
| 1994 | 4,654 | #78 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 5,428 | #64 | 3.0 |
| 1992 | 5,391 | #62 | 2.9 |
| 1991 | 6,384 | #55 | 3.4 |
| 1990 | 7,026 | #50 | 3.7 |
| 1989 | 7,025 | #49 | 3.8 |
| 1988 | 7,246 | #44 | 4.1 |
| 1987 | 4,989 | #63 | 2.9 |
| 1986 | 3,881 | #69 | 2.3 |
| 1985 | 3,593 | #77 | 2.1 |
| 1984 | 2,343 | #118 | 1.4 |
| 1983 | 1,885 | #153 | 1.1 |
| 1982 | 1,192 | #219 | 0.70 |
| 1981 | 784 | #309 | 0.47 |
| 1980 | 646 | #365 | 0.39 |
| 1979 | 254 | #677 | 0.16 |
| 1978 | 222 | #711 | 0.14 |
| 1977 | 172 | #854 | 0.11 |
| 1976 | 133 | #956 | 0.09 |
| 1975 | 94 | #1,220 | 0.06 |
| 1974 | 80 | #1,323 | 0.05 |
| 1973 | 68 | #1,433 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 77 | #1,313 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 77 | #1,377 | 0.05 |
| 1970 | 100 | #1,155 | 0.06 |
| 1969 | 93 | #1,153 | 0.06 |
| 1968 | 77 | #1,246 | 0.05 |
| 1967 | 61 | #1,416 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 51 | #1,572 | 0.03 |
| 1965 | 34 | #2,000 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 24 | #2,534 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 25 | #2,427 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 14 | #3,445 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 16 | #3,202 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 15 | #3,223 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #4,669 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 7 | #4,948 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 13 | #3,333 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 13 | #3,345 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 5 | #5,927 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Caitlin a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Caitlin has been given almost only to girls: 283 boys in 71 years of records.
Girls and boys named Caitlin: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Caitlin, and how old are they?
110,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 112,426 Americans ever recorded as Caitlin. The median Caitlin alive today is 33 years old; half are between 26 and 37.
The 2020 Census counted 102,632 people named Caitlin (102,550 women and girls, 82 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 110,082 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 118 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 2,110 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 68,900 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 35,900 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,990 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Caitlin born?
The states with the most babies named Caitlin are California, Texas and New York, with 71% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 10 | #1,977 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 8 | #2,436 | 0.6× |
| New York | 6 | #1,876 | 1.2× |
| Illinois | 5 | #1,443 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 5 | #2,221 | 0.9× |
Where Caitlin is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Caitlin is most over-represented in Massachusetts: since 1955 it was given 2.0 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Caitlin with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 564,719 babies since 1880, Caitlin is the third most given (20% of them). In 2025 it was given to 78 of their 823 babies (9.5%), again the third most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Caitlin
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Caitlin and names like it
- Compare Caitlin and KaitlynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sCaitlin peaked in 1988.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Caitlin since 1910.
- Irish namesWiktionary’s origin for Caitlin: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1988The year the most babies were named Caitlin.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Caitlin alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with CMost given first.