Katelyn
Katelyn was given to 225 girls in 2025, #1,077 among girls’ names; 134,206 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 132,000 Americans named Katelyn and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 27 years old and half are between 20 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Katelyn by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Katelyn mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Katelyn is “a female given name from Irish, variant of Caitlin.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Katelyn?
#1,077 among girls’ names, 2025
Katelyn fell from #239 in 2015 to #1,077 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.78 to 0.14 per 1,000.
5,975 babies in 1993, the peak
Katelyn peaked in 1993, when 5,975 girls were given it, #54 among girls’ names. The 225 births of 2025 are 4% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 225 | #1,077 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 286 | #926 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 315 | #851 | 0.20 |
| 2022 | 309 | #901 | 0.19 |
| 2021 | 376 | #761 | 0.23 |
| 2020 | 420 | #677 | 0.26 |
| 2019 | 576 | #531 | 0.34 |
| 2018 | 619 | #503 | 0.36 |
| 2017 | 768 | #414 | 0.44 |
| 2016 | 871 | #376 | 0.49 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,385 | #239 | 0.78 |
| 2014 | 1,924 | #172 | 1.1 |
| 2013 | 2,149 | #143 | 1.2 |
| 2012 | 2,416 | #132 | 1.4 |
| 2011 | 2,842 | #106 | 1.6 |
| 2010 | 2,959 | #103 | 1.7 |
| 2009 | 3,571 | #90 | 1.9 |
| 2008 | 3,976 | #80 | 2.1 |
| 2007 | 4,259 | #75 | 2.2 |
| 2006 | 4,890 | #61 | 2.6 |
| 2005 | 4,928 | #59 | 2.7 |
| 2004 | 4,952 | #59 | 2.7 |
| 2003 | 5,054 | #58 | 2.8 |
| 2002 | 5,267 | #53 | 2.9 |
| 2001 | 5,441 | #52 | 3.0 |
| 2000 | 5,502 | #54 | 3.0 |
| 1999 | 5,309 | #55 | 3.0 |
| 1998 | 5,367 | #58 | 3.0 |
| 1997 | 5,156 | #63 | 3.0 |
| 1996 | 5,421 | #64 | 3.1 |
| 1995 | 5,573 | #59 | 3.2 |
| 1994 | 5,670 | #58 | 3.2 |
| 1993 | 5,975 | #54 | 3.3 |
| 1992 | 5,291 | #65 | 2.9 |
| 1991 | 4,560 | #75 | 2.4 |
| 1990 | 4,489 | #75 | 2.4 |
| 1989 | 4,036 | #76 | 2.2 |
| 1988 | 3,510 | #84 | 2.0 |
| 1987 | 2,219 | #127 | 1.3 |
| 1986 | 1,939 | #149 | 1.1 |
| 1985 | 1,419 | #191 | 0.82 |
| 1984 | 702 | #332 | 0.42 |
| 1983 | 424 | #472 | 0.25 |
| 1982 | 242 | #718 | 0.14 |
| 1981 | 152 | #965 | 0.09 |
| 1980 | 132 | #1,072 | 0.08 |
| 1979 | 63 | #1,743 | 0.04 |
| 1978 | 42 | #2,210 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 21 | #3,534 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 14 | #4,466 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,510 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 8 | #6,510 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 8 | #6,334 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,684 | under 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,884 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 9 | #5,583 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Katelyn a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Katelyn has been given almost only to girls: 157 boys in 56 years of records.
Girls and boys named Katelyn: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Katelyn, and how old are they?
132,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 134,206 Americans ever recorded as Katelyn. The median Katelyn alive today is 27 years old; half are between 20 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 117,578 people named Katelyn (117,459 women and girls, 119 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 130,790 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 300 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 50,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 71,200 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,200 |
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 Katelyn born?
The states with the most babies named Katelyn are California, Texas and Michigan, with 41% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 30 | #944 | 0.7× |
| Texas | 29 | #994 | 0.8× |
| Michigan | 12 | #661 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 10 | #892 | 1.2× |
| Florida | 10 | #1,376 | 0.8× |
| Ohio | 9 | #996 | 1.1× |
| New York | 9 | #1,461 | 0.7× |
| Tennessee | 9 | #781 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 8 | #1,072 | 0.9× |
| Utah | 8 | #511 | 1.3× |
Where Katelyn is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Katelyn is most over-represented in Iowa: since 1970 it was given 1.4 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 Katelyn 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 371,331 babies since 1880, Katelyn is the second most given (36% of them). In 2025 it was given to 225 of their 646 babies (35%), again the second 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 Katelyn
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 Katelyn and names like it
- Compare Katelyn and KaitlynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sKatelyn peaked in 1993.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Katelyn since 1910.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Katelyn.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Katelyn alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.