girl's name
Kaitlyn
KAYT-lin
- Origin Irish
- Gender Girl
- Letters 7
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 187,524
the United States
#801
2025 births
Kaitlyn is a girl's name that respells the Irish Caitlín — which came into Irish from French, and into French from Greek. Its meaning is genuinely unknown at the far end of that chain.
- Kaitlyn is a name of Irish origin.
- Peaked in 2000, when 8,771 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 9,751 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1971.
Kaitlyn over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1970s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1970s | 76 |
| 1980s | 10,928 |
| 1990s | 67,649 |
| 2000s | 67,021 |
| 2010s | 18,357 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,890 |
What Kaitlyn means
Kaitlyn has no securely known meaning, because Catherine does not. The reading pure was attached centuries after the name existed, by association with a Greek word it does not derive from.
Where Kaitlyn comes from
Kaitlyn is an American respelling of Caitlin, the Irish Caitlín, which came into Irish from the Old French Cateline, itself from Catherine — whose Greek original Aikaterine has no established derivation. So a name that reads as modern American spelling traces through Irish, French, Latin and Greek to a word nobody can identify. The -lyn ending belongs to the same American habit that produced Carolyn, Marilyn and Jocelyn. Our records carry it only from 1971, and the family of respellings — Caitlin, Katelyn, Kaitlin, Katelynn — divided the same sound between them through the 1990s.
Kaitlyn in use
Kaitlyn peaked in the United States in 2000, when 8,771 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 801st in the United States on 340 births, 1381st in England and Wales on 23 and 6343rd in France, across 187,524 lifetime births in four of the seven markets we track. Our records carry it only from 1971, so its entire measured life fits inside fifty-five years.
How popular is Kaitlyn?
In 2025, Kaitlyn was given to 340 babies in the United States, ranking #801 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Kaitlyn is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Kaitlyn
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Kaitlyn also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Kaitlyn over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
2 nicknames for Kaitlyn
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Kaitlyn in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Kaitlyn
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Kaitlyn — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Kaitlyn
What does the name Kaitlyn mean?
Not securely known. It respells Caitlin, from Catherine, whose Greek original has no established derivation.
Is Kaitlyn Irish?
The form Caitlín is Irish, though the name came into Irish from French and ultimately from Greek.
How many spellings are there?
Caitlin, Katelyn, Kaitlin, Kaitlyn and Katelynn all divided the same sound through the 1990s.
How popular is Kaitlyn?
801st in the United States, down from a 2000 peak of 8,771 births.
Is Kaitlyn a girl's or a boy's name?
Kaitlyn is given almost entirely to girls in birth records.
What are the nicknames for Kaitlyn?
Kaitlyn is usually shortened to Kait and Katie.
Is Kaitlyn a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Kaitlyn currently ranks #715 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.