Katherine
From the Greek, the name means "pure". It stays rare in Poland and belongs entirely to women: most Poles have never met a Katherine, and fewer girls are given it each passing year.
Katherine Pronunciation
What Katherine means
Where Katherine comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Katherine comes down from the Greek name Aikaterine, whose oldest meaning is genuinely uncertain. The link to katharos, the Greek word for pure, was attached later, and it reshaped the spelling. Older forms like Katerina gained a "th" to match that idea. So the sense most people give the name, pure, began as a story told about it rather than as its root.
In English the name spread through Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a fourth-century martyr whose cult made it common across medieval Europe. English speech kept a wide family of forms. Katrina went one way as a variant, while the Polish line runs through Katarzyna and its warm diminutive Kasia.
Picture a school register in Poland. The full entry reads Katarzyna. By the second week she is Kasia to everyone. Her name-day falls on 25 November, which keeps Saint Catherine close. Whatever road the word travelled, the meaning fixed to it stays simple: pure.
How many people are named Katherine
1 in 35558 women in Poland is named Katherine. 634 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1184 among female names.
Katherine's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been falling steadily since 2000.
Where Katherine is most popular
Katherine is most popular in Silesian, 850% above the national average (2 girls born 2019–2025).
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Silesian2 girls born+850%
Katherine as a middle name
Katherine is a first name for 634 women in Poland and a middle name for another 306, a 67/33 split. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 387th, between Luna (310) and Iwonna (305).
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#385 Valentina311
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#386 Luna310
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#387 Katherine306
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#388 Iwonna305
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#389 Beatriz303