Humanverse

Catherine vs Catrice

American parents have registered 669,611 Catherines since 1880, against 1,005 Catrices. Catherine is still ahead, with 972 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Catherine against Catrice, 1880 to 2025 0 4k 8k 12k 16k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Catherine Catrice

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Catherine has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1975, when Catherine had 3,947 and Catrice had 51.

Side by side

  Catherine Catrice
Total US births 669,6111,005
Most in one year 12,07555
Babies in 2025 972under 5
Estimated living today 381,000960
Median age today 5846
Peak year 19561971
Best rank 28th girls1,665th girls
Rank in 2025 313thunranked
First recorded 18801965
Girls / boys 667,789 / 1,8221,005 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Catherines alive today are over 58; half the Catrices are over 46. That is 12 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Catherine and Catrice.