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The first name 
Kate

Kate is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.

Kate – known and loved in the US!

The name Kate isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Kate ranks 242. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 8 were named Kate. In the entire USA, approximately 71,467 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Kate. That is 0.02 % of all living Americans.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Kate

What does the name 
Kate mean?

As a diminutive of Katherine, Kate derives from the Greek name Aikaterine. Its origin is unclear, but a derivation from the Greek word ‘hekateros’ meaning ‘each of the two’ is possible. Another possibility: The name originates from the Greek ‘katharos’ meaning ‘pure’.

The Dutch surname 'ten Kate'... means 'at the house'. The word is related to the English 'cottage'.

Kate -
very popular in the late 19th century

Appearing throughout the time in the United States, the name Kate is a staple in the country: Girls have been given the name Kate for more than 140 years, according to official U.S. naming statistics. Kate is therefore one of the 432 girls’ names that have been given every year since 1880. Even beyond that, Kate is a very special name that peaked in popularity over 100 years ago in the 19th century, ranking in the top 100 girls' names in our SmartGenius first name statistics: With #78 Kate has never been more popular than back in 1880.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Kate was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

694 newborn babies with the name Kate in 2022

As many as 694 babies were named Kate in the USA in 2022, ranking it #422 on the list of the most popular girls' names for that year. However, it experienced its lowest point of popularity in 1956, when it was only ranked #915 of all female names in our SmartGenius statistics – back then only 108 girls were named Kate.

Kate -
at home in every state from California to New York

The name Kate may not be in the top rankings of the most popular girls’ names, but it is one of the few female given names, along with only 536 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Kate is apparently especially popular in Utah. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular women’s names here either, one in 551 women in Utah is called Kate. In total, that’s 2,120 women who feel addressed when the name Kate is shouted loudly across Utah and who ensure that their name makes it to #144 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common female names in this nice state. If you asked all women in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Kate as the answer a total of 71,467 times. This places Kate at #418 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular women’s names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living women across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Kate as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.

Kate has 4 letters 
and begins with a K

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter K is a real popular first letter for girls' names. That’s because 7.5% of all common girls’ names in the US begin with this letter. Only the first letters A, S and M are more common for girls' names.

With four letters, the name Kate is shorter than most other given names. In fact, only 5.5% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly four letters. Just 1.2% of all first names are even shorter, while 93% consist of more than four letters. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 7.5% of all girls' names start with a K, this initial letter occurs more than twice as often as all 26 letters on average. Interesting detail: of all the girls' names that begin with a K, Karen is the most common.

Other names with 
K, a, t and e

If you take all the letters in the name Kate – K, a, t and e – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Ekta or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Kate

If your name is Kate and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Kate

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Kate, you can simply say:

Koala

Apple

Tiger

Elephant

This is how the name Kate is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Kate in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Kate

Kate

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Kate

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Kate is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

K
A
T
E

Have you ever waved the name Kate

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

K
A
T
E

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Kate sounds like this: