Cate
Cate was given to 11 girls in 2025, #8,976 among girls’ names; 1,789 Americans have been recorded with it since 1980 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,770 Americans named Cate and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 13 and 22.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cate by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Cate mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Cate is “a diminutive of the female given name Catherine.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Cate?
#8,976 among girls’ names, 2025
Cate fell from #2,938 in 2015 to #8,976 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 33.1 to 6.8 per million.
152 babies in 2008, the peak
Cate peaked in 2008, when 152 girls were given it, #1,529 among girls’ names. The 11 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 11 | #8,976 | 6.8 |
| 2024 | 26 | #5,043 | 16.0 |
| 2023 | 17 | #6,721 | 10.6 |
| 2022 | 25 | #5,194 | 15.2 |
| 2021 | 23 | #5,425 | 14.0 |
| 2020 | 18 | #6,376 | 11.1 |
| 2019 | 30 | #4,562 | 17.9 |
| 2018 | 47 | #3,356 | 27.6 |
| 2017 | 39 | #3,859 | 22.6 |
| 2016 | 38 | #3,939 | 21.4 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 59 | #2,938 | 33.1 |
| 2014 | 61 | #2,813 | 34.1 |
| 2013 | 61 | #2,812 | 34.8 |
| 2012 | 88 | #2,151 | 50.0 |
| 2011 | 95 | #2,045 | 54.0 |
| 2010 | 80 | #2,367 | 45.0 |
| 2009 | 115 | #1,851 | 62.6 |
| 2008 | 152 | #1,529 | 80.4 |
| 2007 | 118 | #1,808 | 61.4 |
| 2006 | 87 | #2,209 | 45.8 |
| 2005 | 118 | #1,680 | 63.9 |
| 2004 | 111 | #1,735 | 60.4 |
| 2003 | 82 | #2,125 | 44.9 |
| 2002 | 64 | #2,468 | 35.6 |
| 2001 | 41 | #3,320 | 22.8 |
| 2000 | 44 | #3,123 | 24.2 |
| 1999 | 38 | #3,324 | 21.4 |
| 1998 | 10 | #8,688 | 5.7 |
| 1996 | 5 | #13,875 | 2.9 |
| 1995 | 8 | #9,718 | 4.5 |
| 1994 | 6 | #12,030 | 3.4 |
| 1993 | 5 | #13,797 | 2.8 |
| 1992 | 10 | #8,170 | 5.4 |
| 1991 | 5 | #13,487 | 2.7 |
| 1989 | 5 | #12,687 | 2.7 |
| 1988 | 9 | #7,789 | 5.1 |
| 1987 | 9 | #7,454 | 5.2 |
| 1986 | 8 | #7,859 | 4.7 |
| 1985 | 8 | #7,660 | 4.6 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,574 | 4.7 |
| 1980 | 5 | #10,602 | 3.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cate a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cate has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 41 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Cate: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cate, and how old are they?
1,770 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,789 Americans ever recorded as Cate. The median Cate alive today is 18 years old; half are between 13 and 22.
The 2020 Census counted 2,631 people named Cate (2,610 women and girls, 21 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,660 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 84 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,230 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 452 |
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 Cate born?
The states with the most babies named Cate are California, Texas and New York, with 65% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 180 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Texas | 156 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| New York | 77 | not ranked | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 45 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 26 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 17 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Florida | 16 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| Louisiana | 12 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| North Carolina | 12 | not ranked | 0.2× |
| New Jersey | 12 | not ranked | 0.2× |
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 Cate 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 359,407 babies since 1880, Cate is the sixth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 it was given to 11 of their 1,104 babies (<1%), the fourth most given that year.
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 Cate
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 Cate and names like it
- Compare Cate and KatieBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sCate peaked in 2008.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cate since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Cate.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cate alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.