# Cathleen (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/cathleen/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | girls |
| Origin | Irish |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 29,933 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 10 / 29,923 (100% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 26, 1996 to 2025 |

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 29 | 4,830 |
| 2012 | 16 | 7,523 |
| 2013 | 33 | 4,348 |
| 2014 | 27 | 5,053 |
| 2015 | 21 | 6,069 |
| 2016 | 16 | 7,327 |
| 2017 | 18 | 6,596 |
| 2018 | 13 | 8,243 |
| 2019 | 8 | 11,577 |
| 2020 | 11 | 9,062 |
| 2021 | 11 | 9,090 |
| 2022 | 13 | 8,129 |
| 2023 | 7 | 12,402 |
| 2024 | 12 | 8,557 |
| 2025 | 10 | 9,581 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1953 | 5 | 3,894 |
| 1964 | 5 | 4,133 |

### England and Wales, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 3 | 3,795 |
| 1999 | 3 | 3,900 |
| 2000 | 4 | 3,247 |
| 2003 | 3 | 4,373 |
| 2005 | 3 | 4,798 |
| 2008 | 3 | 5,545 |
| 2009 | 4 | 4,564 |
| 2015 | 3 | 5,730 |

## People named Cathleen

- Cathleen Synge Morawetz, Canadian mathematician (1923–2017)
- Cathleen Nesbitt, British actress (1888-1982)
- Cathleen Tschirch, German athlete and athletics coach
- Cathleen Martini, German bobsledder
- Cathleen Schine, American writer
- Bo Derek, American actress
- Margo Harshman, American actress
- Audrina Patridge, American reality television star

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.