Cathey
Cathey was last recorded in 1983, when 5 babies were given it; 2,216 Americans have been recorded with it between 1939 and 1983 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,720 Americans named Cathey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (78% of everyone recorded); the median is 70 years old and half are between 65 and 75.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cathey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cathey?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #10,498, in 1983; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
157 babies in 1953, the peak
Cathey peaked in 1953, when 157 girls were given it, #723 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | 5 | #10,498 | 3.0 |
| 1982 | 5 | #10,731 | 3.0 |
| 1980 | 5 | #10,604 | 3.0 |
| 1979 | 5 | #10,421 | 3.1 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,660 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 7 | #7,385 | 4.8 |
| 1975 | 10 | #5,584 | 6.9 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,328 | 5.5 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,159 | 5.5 |
| 1972 | 17 | #3,567 | 11.2 |
Every recorded year (42)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | 16 | #3,806 | 9.6 |
| 1970 | 30 | #2,456 | 17.2 |
| 1969 | 27 | #2,528 | 16.0 |
| 1968 | 23 | #2,640 | 14.0 |
| 1967 | 25 | #2,440 | 15.1 |
| 1966 | 28 | #2,256 | 16.5 |
| 1965 | 52 | #1,547 | 29.5 |
| 1964 | 54 | #1,549 | 28.5 |
| 1963 | 57 | #1,481 | 29.6 |
| 1962 | 64 | #1,384 | 32.5 |
| 1961 | 65 | #1,386 | 32.2 |
| 1960 | 82 | #1,199 | 40.6 |
| 1959 | 95 | #1,098 | 46.9 |
| 1958 | 90 | #1,112 | 44.7 |
| 1957 | 110 | #989 | 53.8 |
| 1956 | 118 | #928 | 58.8 |
| 1955 | 144 | #803 | 73.6 |
| 1954 | 100 | #968 | 51.5 |
| 1953 | 157 | #723 | 83.5 |
| 1952 | 146 | #732 | 78.7 |
| 1951 | 134 | #760 | 74.4 |
| 1950 | 106 | #857 | 61.9 |
| 1949 | 97 | #895 | 56.7 |
| 1948 | 80 | #970 | 47.1 |
| 1947 | 63 | #1,128 | 35.5 |
| 1946 | 51 | #1,208 | 32.5 |
| 1945 | 33 | #1,401 | 25.2 |
| 1944 | 20 | #1,921 | 15.1 |
| 1943 | 27 | #1,627 | 19.4 |
| 1942 | 23 | #1,766 | 17.0 |
| 1941 | 16 | #2,105 | 13.2 |
| 1939 | 6 | #3,823 | 5.5 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Cathey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cathey has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 42 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Cathey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cathey, and how old are they?
1,720 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 78% of the 2,216 Americans ever recorded as Cathey. The median Cathey alive today is 70 years old; half are between 65 and 75.
The 2020 Census counted 1,898 people named Cathey (1,889 women and girls, 9 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,873 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 65 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 1,400 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 244 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 10 |
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 Cathey born?
The states with the most babies named Cathey are Texas, Tennessee and North Carolina, with 64% of its births recorded by state since 1910; Tennessee is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 371 | not ranked | 2.8× |
| Tennessee | 223 | not ranked | 4.5× |
| North Carolina | 196 | not ranked | 3.0× |
| Oklahoma | 144 | not ranked | 4.9× |
| Louisiana | 64 | not ranked | 1.4× |
| California | 63 | not ranked | 0.3× |
| Arkansas | 46 | not ranked | 1.7× |
| South Carolina | 32 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Mississippi | 15 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Alabama | 14 | not ranked | 0.3× |
Where Cathey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Cathey is most over-represented in Oklahoma: since 1939 it was given 4.9 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 Cathey with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
How common is the spelling Cathey?
Cathey is a less common spelling of Kathy: SSA has recorded 2,216 Cathey and 334,870 Kathy since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 518,786 babies since 1880, Cathey is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 60 babies recorded by SSA was a Cathey (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Cathey
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 Cathey and names like it
- Compare Cathey and KathyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sCathey peaked in 1953.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Cathey since 1910.
- The top names of 1953The year the most babies were named Cathey.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Cathey alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with CMost given first.