Name Generator

How popular is the name Kathleen?

Births per year, rank history and how many Kathleens are alive today.

Kathleen (female), once a common girls' name, is now an uncommon choice for new babies in England and Wales, ranked 997th in 2025 with 34 given the name. The name peaked in 1914, when around 15,200 babies were given the name, the 5th most popular that year. It has declined since 1914; the 2025 figure is roughly 1% of its peak. Numbers have been falling in recent years. At least 390,000 babies have been named Kathleen in England and Wales since 1904. Figures before 1996 are estimates.

The Kathleen you are most likely to meet is around 81 years old. Half of all Kathleens born in England and Wales are between 68 and 88, and there are at least 75,000 of them alive today. If you walk into a room of 100 females, there's roughly a 21% chance that at least one of them will be called Kathleen.

How many babies are named Kathleen each year?

Where does Kathleen rank among girls' names?

Where this data comes from

Figures from 1996 onwards are the Office for National Statistics' annual baby-name registrations for England and Wales, which record every name given to three or more babies in a year. Figures before 1996 are estimates: the ONS published only top-100 rankings at ten-year intervals back to 1904, so counts for those years are modelled from the rankings, calibrated against Douglas Galbi's long-run research into English name frequencies, and shown with an uncertainty band. Estimates of living bearers combine these birth figures with national life tables and ONS mid-year population estimates.

One limit worth naming: these figures count names as registered at birth. Anyone who changes their name later in life - including trans people, and anyone who adopts a different name by deed poll or simply by use - is not reflected here. Birth registrations record where a name began, not the name a person lives with.