Kathleen Girl
How popular is Kathleen?
#1,150 girl name in 2025
201 baby girls were named Kathleen in the US in 2025, making it the 1150th most popular girl name.
Kathleen popularity over time
Boys Girls
| Rank in 2025 | #1,150 for girls (▼ 51 from 2024) |
|---|---|
| Babies in 2025 | 201 girls |
| 10-year trend | Falling (-41% babies vs 2015) |
| Earlier ranks | #823 in 2015, #1,004 in 2020 |
| Peak year | 1951 (26,716 girls) |
| Highest rank | #9 in 1949 |
| First recorded | 1880 |
| Boys vs girls (last 10 years) | 0% boys, 100% girls |
| Chance a classmate shares it | 0.1% in a class of 25 kids born in 2025 |
Kathleen counting every spelling
Social Security counts each spelling as its own name. Adding together the spellings that sound alike, the Kathleen family of names ranked #976 for girls in 2025 (#945 the year before), with 211 babies in all.
| Spelling | Girls in 2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kathleen | 201 | 95% |
| Cathleen | 10 | 5% |
Spellings are grouped by how they sound, using our own rules, so a few groupings may not match how your family says the name.
Where Kathleen is most popular
Babies named Kathleen per 1,000 girls born in each state, 2021 to 2025. Darker means more common.
- Pennsylvania: 0.4 per 1,000 (90 girls)
- Massachusetts: 0.3 per 1,000 (34 girls)
- Virginia: 0.2 per 1,000 (41 girls)
- New Jersey: 0.2 per 1,000 (42 girls)
- Indiana: 0.2 per 1,000 (32 girls)
Kathleen by decade
| Decade | Baby girls | Best rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 389 | #251 |
| 1890s | 1,942 | #163 |
| 1900s | 3,924 | #132 |
| 1910s | 16,592 | #99 |
| 1920s | 33,597 | #70 |
| 1930s | 34,550 | #48 |
| 1940s | 152,981 | #9 |
| 1950s | 224,342 | #10 |
| 1960s | 120,952 | #27 |
| 1970s | 44,847 | #45 |
| 1980s | 39,394 | #68 |
| 1990s | 24,846 | #92 |
| 2000s | 10,065 | #204 |
| 2010s | 3,809 | #594 |
| 2020s | 1,415 | #987 |
Girl names about as popular as Kathleen
Questions
- Is Kathleen a boy or girl name?
- Kathleen is mostly a girl name. Over the last 10 years, 100% of babies named Kathleen were girls.
- How popular is the name Kathleen?
- 201 baby girls were named Kathleen in the US in 2025, making it the 1150th most popular girl name.
- When was Kathleen most popular?
- Kathleen peaked in 1951, when 26,716 girls were given the name. Its highest rank was #9 in 1949.
- How many people are named Kathleen?
- 715,336 babies have been named Kathleen in the US since 1880. We estimate about 517,511 of them are alive in 2026, with a median age of 68.
- Where is Kathleen most popular?
- From 2021 to 2025, Kathleen was most common in Pennsylvania, at 0.4 of every 1,000 girls born there.
Source: Social Security Administration baby name data, 1880 to 2025 (names given to at least 5 babies of a sex in a year). Living-people and median-age figures are our estimates using US life tables. How we calculate.