Kathleen
Fewer than a hundred women in Poland carry Kathleen, so meeting one would stay with you. The name is Celtic at root and means "pure".
Kathleen Pronunciation
What Kathleen means
Where Kathleen comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Kathleen reached English through Irish. It is the anglicised spelling of Caitlín, an Irish form of Katherine, and that Celtic root is what set it apart on English-speaking registers. The name came in with an Irish sound already on it.
The meaning "pure" attached to the name later. Katherine was tied to the Greek word katharos, meaning clean, and that reading passed down to Kathleen along with the rest of the family. The sense of purity is a story added to the name, and it was not there at the start.
Kathleen belongs mostly to the English-speaking world, and it stayed strongest there. It was a common choice in Ireland, England and America across the early twentieth century. A Polish child on a class register might sit as the one Kathleen among a row of Katarzynas. Short and plain, the name still says the same word: pure.
How many people are named Kathleen
1 in 227715 women in Poland is named Kathleen. 99 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #3476 among female names.
Kathleen's popularity over time
Fewer than 2 girls were given the name in 2025. It has been stable for a decade.
Kathleen as a middle name
Kathleen is a first name for 99 women in Poland and a middle name for another 106, a 48/52 split, almost evenly. In the women's middle-name ranking it sits 648th, between Herta (106) and Rae (106).
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#646 Damiana106
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#647 Herta106
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#648 Kathleen106
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#649 Rae106
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#650 Chantal105