Girls' name · peaked in 1958

Cathleen name popularity since 1925

29,129 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Cathleen. Half of them were born in 1960 or earlier, so the typical Cathleen is about 66 years old in 2026. Cathleen peaked in 1958 as the #255 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925: 29,129; Named Cathleen, 1925–2025
Peak year: 1958; #255 for girls that year
Typical age: About 66; Median birth year 1960
In 2025: Not top 1,000; #9,581 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys: 100.0% girls; 29,119 girls · 10 boys
Most popular in: Massachusetts; 2.20× its national share

Peak year is the year Cathleen made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Cathleen births per year, 1925–2025

1958 was the biggest year for Cathleen both by count and as a share of all babies.

Fastest rise: Between 1943 and 1948, Cathleen became 2.7× more common, from 1 in 7,010 baby girls to 1 in 2,600.
Steepest fall: Between 1971 and 1976, its share of baby girls fell by 54%, from 1 in 3,120 to 1 in 6,850.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Cathleen's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Cathleen.

Decade by decade

Babies named Cathleen in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade	Girls	Boys	Rank
1925–29	322	0	–
1930s	599	0	#885
1940s	3,541	0	#403
1950s	9,464	5	#268
1960s	8,289	5	#301
1970s	3,461	0	#608
1980s	1,760	0	#853
1990s	956	0	#1,922
2000s	461	0	#3,523
2010s	202	0	#6,069
2020–25	64	0	#9,581

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

56.1% of babies named Cathleen from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Baby Boom years (1946–1964). The full split by generation:

Where Cathleen is most popular

The index compares Cathleen's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Cathleen.

State	Index	Babies
Massachusetts	2.20×	1,325
New York	2.09×	4,021
Connecticut	2.00×	549
New Jersey	1.94×	1,352
Illinois	1.73×	2,137

Other spellings

Spellings that sound like Cathleen and were given to at least 1,000 girls from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.

Spelling	Girls	Peak year
Cathleen (this page)	29,119	1958
Kathleen	673,338	1949

Names with a similar story

Of the other 1999 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Cathleen's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Cathleen.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Cathleen (1958).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data