Katrina

The name Katrina descends from the Greek Aikaterine, the same root that gives us Katherine and, in Polish, Katarzyna. The origin of that Greek form is still debated among scholars. Its later history is clearer. Early Christian writers linked the name to the Greek word katharos, meaning pure, and the sense of "pure," czysta in Polish, was attached to the name afterward rather than born with it.

That reinterpretation stuck. Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a martyr venerated since the early medieval period, carried the name into churches and calendars across Europe, and Katarzyna followed her into Polish tradition. From Katarzyna comes the warm diminutive Kasia, heard in any school class register in Poland.

Katrina is one of the shorter branches of this family. It travels lightly. A child named Katrina still belongs to the long line behind Katherine and Katarzyna, and to the Greek word for pure that later readers found in it.