Katherine
Meaning of Katherine
Katherine—pronounced KATH-rin—first danced into the world’s vocabulary from the Greek katharos, “pure,” and she has spent the centuries polishing that meaning like a gleaming piece of Iberian silver. Legends tell of Saint Catherine of Alexandria debating philosophers with the fire of a Roman orator; storytellers in Sevilla still liken her wit to a sword “afilada y brillante.” Royal courts borrowed the name for queens, poets wrapped it in roses, and modern parents continue the tradition: even as U.S. charts show her glide from the lofty 25th spot in the early ’90s to a relaxed 170th today, nearly two thousand tiny Katherines arrive each year, as steady as church bells on Sunday. Nicknames abound—Kate, Kat, Kitty—each one a different guitar string, yet all play the same pure chord. One can almost hear her whisper, with a wink, “I’ve been around since ancient Rome; a little dip in rank won’t ruffle my laurel wreath.”
Pronunciation
English
- Pronunced as KATH-rin (/ˈkæθ.rɪn/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Katherine
| Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, was the third wife of John of Gaunt, son of King Edward III. |
| Katherine Heigl is an American actress and model best known for playing Dr. Izzie Stevens on the ABC drama Greys Anatomy, a role that won her a 2007 Primetime Emmy. |
| Creola Katherine Johnson was a pioneering NASA mathematician whose calculations enabled the first US crewed spaceflights and who was among the first African American women scientists at the agency. |
| Katherine Mansfield - Kathleen Mansfield Murry was a New Zealand writer and critic, a key modernist whose work is celebrated worldwide and translated into 25 languages. |
| Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins performs operatic arias, popular songs, musical theatre, and hymns. |
| Katherine Grace McNamara is an American actress and singer known for Shadowhunters, Arrow, The Stand, and the Maze Runner films, earning Teen Choice and People's Choice awards plus a Critics Choice Super Award nomination. |
| Katherine Clark is an American lawyer and longtime Massachusetts congresswoman who became House Minority Whip in 2023 after earlier party leadership roles and service in the state legislature. |
| Katherine Anne Porter was an acclaimed American writer whose short stories won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, and whose 1962 novel Ship of Fools was a national bestseller. |
| Katherine Louise Rawls, later known as Katherine Thompson and Katherine Green, was an American swimmer and diver of the 1930s who won multiple national titles, Olympic silver on the three meter springboard in 1932 and 1936, and a 1936 bronze in the 4x100 freestyle relay. |
| American children's author Katherine Paterson, best known for Bridge to Terabithia, won two Newbery Medals, two National Book Awards, the Hans Christian Andersen and Astrid Lindgren career honors, and served as US National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. |
| Australian actress Katherine Langford broke out as Hannah Baker on the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why, earning a Golden Globe nomination, and later starred in Love, Simon, Knives Out, Spontaneous, and Cursed. |
| Katherine Sui Fun Cheung, a trailblazing Chinese aviator, earned one of the first private pilot licenses for a Chinese woman, became the first with an international license, and later became an American citizen. |
| Katherine Willis, Baroness Willis of Summertown - Katherine Jane Willis, Baroness Willis of Summertown, is a British biologist and Oxford professor focused on long term ecosystem change, former Director of Science at Kew, Principal of St Edmund Hall, and a crossbench life peer. |
| Katherine Applegate - K. A. Applegate is an American children's and young adult author best known for Animorphs, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal for The One and Only Ivan, and writer of other series like Remnants, Everworld, and Roscoe Riley Rules. |
| Katherine Burton was an American Catholic convert, noted religious biographer, the first female columnist in a Catholic journal, and a family rights activist who also wrote poetry and short stories. |
