Holiday Calendar

National Kathryn Day

Next celebratedThursday, July 8, 2027

Across 146 years of American birth records, Kathryn was never once the most common spelling of its own name; it held second place for 23 unbroken years. July 8 is the day for a spelling that did not have to win.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEJuly 8
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYNames
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A day that survives on people showing up.

No establishing act for National Kathryn Day has been located: no proclamation, no trademark filing, no launch announcement, and no sponsoring organisation. What is documented is observance. People mark the day on July 8 and post about it publicly, including on 8 July 2024. The Federal Register returns nothing for the phrase.

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INTRO

How many of 146 years Kathryn spent in first place

National Kathryn Day honors a spelling that never finished first. The Social Security Administration has published a list of American baby names every year since 1880. Across all 146 of those years, Kathryn was never the most common spelling of its own name.

The comparison counts five spellings the way the federal data records them, separately: Kathryn, Katherine, Catherine, Kathleen and Katharine. Three of them took turns in front. Catherine led in 59 of the years, longer than any other.

All five were measured on births rather than on published rank positions, and no year ended in a tie at the top. Second place was Kathryn's ceiling. It held that spot for 23 unbroken years.

The run ended in 1999. A name does not have to win to be worth keeping a day for.

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ORIGINS

Kathryn Day history

INTRODUCTION

The name arrives with a wheel attached. Britannica records that St Catherine of Alexandria was bound to a spiked wheel that shattered at her touch, and that the device has been called a Catherine wheel ever since. She was beheaded instead.

How much of that happened is another matter. Britannica notes she is not mentioned before the 9th century, and that her historicity is doubtful. The name outlasted the doubt.

CHAPTER 01

A meaning still unsettled

Behind the Name lists four candidate derivations for the Greek Aikaterine and settles on none of them. One is a word meaning each of two. Another is the goddess Hecate.

The familiar answer, pure, is not on that list as a derivation. Reference works treat it as an association attached to the name in the early Christian era, from the Greek katharos. Etymonline dates the English h to the 1500s and calls the link probably folk etymology.

CHAPTER 02

How the spellings split

Behind the Name records that the saint was initially venerated in Syria, and that returning crusaders brought the name into Western Europe. It was common in England by the 1100s, in many competing forms. Katherine and Catherine became the standard pair in the later Middle Ages.

Kathryn is the tighter one. Behind the Name calls it a contracted form of Katherine, the same name with the middle vowel squeezed out of the spelling. It is a shortcut that stuck.

CHAPTER 03

A day without paperwork

The observance leaves a thinner trail than the name does. A search of the Federal Register turns up nothing for National Kathryn Day. What survives is the keeping.

People mark it on July 8 and say so in public. That is the whole documented life of the day, and it has carried it this far.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Kathryn Day

CONTINUITY

Never in front, and never once missing.

Kathryn appears in every annual list of American baby names the Social Security Administration has published since 1880. It was there in the first year of the series and it is there in the most recent.

STABILITY

Two spellings that swapped once in 146 years

Katherine and Catherine changed places in the American counts exactly one time, in 1973, and Katherine has led every year since. Behind the Name records the same changeover independently of the federal data.

USAGE

The name still arrives with a choice attached

Behind the Name records that both Katherine and Catherine remain in regular use across the English-speaking world. A parent choosing the name is also choosing among forms that have competed for centuries.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Kathryn Day by the Numbers

455,423
US girls named Kathryn, 1880-2025
381
US girls named Kathryn in 2025
90.9%
Share of US births spelled with a y
No. 45
Kathryn's best US rank, set in 1951

TIMELINE

Timeline

Catherine of Alexandria is martyred

Britannica places her death in the early 300s at Alexandria, on the spiked wheel that later took her name.

The saint's first surviving mention

Britannica records that no source mentions Catherine of Alexandria before the 9th century.

The name takes hold in England

Behind the Name records the name as common in England from the 12th century, in many competing spellings.

English adds the letter h

Etymonline dates the h to the 16th century and calls it probably folk etymology from the Greek katharos.

Kathryn enters the federal record

The first year of the Social Security Administration's national name series lists 204 girls named Kathryn.

Kathryn's biggest year

American parents registered 8,504 girls as Kathryn, the highest single-year count anywhere in the series.

GOOD TO KNOW

Notable Kathryns

Kathryn D. Sullivan went first in two directions

NASA records her 11 October 1984 spacewalk on STS-41G as the first by an American woman, and adds that she later became the first woman to dive to the lowest point on Earth, Challenger Deep.

Kathryn Bigelow ended a category's long wait

The Academy's own record of the 2010 ceremony states that she became the first woman to win the Academy Award for directing.

Kathryn Grayson was born Zelma

The Hollywood Walk of Fame gives the MGM soprano's birth name as Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick. Kathryn was her middle name, and she went by it.

Kathryn Hahn has four Emmy nominations and no win

The Television Academy lists her as a nominee in 2017, 2021, 2023 and 2025, with no victory recorded.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Kathryn Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Look up the year a Kathryn was born

The Social Security Administration publishes a count for every year back to 1880. Find the entry for a Kathryn you know and see where the spelling stood that year.

SETTLE

Settle the spelling question at the table

Ask each Kathryn, Katherine and Catherine present how their parents chose. The reference books cannot separate the forms by meaning, so the answers are usually family stories.

READ

Read what the dictionaries actually say

Open Etymonline on Catherine and read the entry in full. It is short, and it declines to tell you what the Greek meant.

WATCH

Watch a Kathryn who got there first

Screen The Hurt Locker, or read NASA's account of the STS-41G spacewalk. Both document a Kathryn arriving somewhere no woman had been before.

SEND

Send the note you keep meaning to send

Write to a Kathryn and spell it her way, carefully. Getting the spelling right is the whole courtesy on a day about spellings.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Kathryn Day?

1 / 7

How many years has Kathryn been the most common spelling in US birth records?

Answer

No. It has no legal standing anywhere that could be located, and a full-text search of the Federal Register returns nothing for the phrase.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

11sources
6primary records
4independently dated
Primary records
Social Security Administration2025
National data on the popularity of baby names
The federal count of US births by given name and sex for every year from 1880 to 2025, and the basis for the spelling comparisons and totals on this page.
View source
NASA
Former Astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan
NASA's own biography of Sullivan, covering her selection in the 1978 astronaut class, her 11 October 1984 spacewalk on STS-41G, and her later dive to Challenger Deep.
View source
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences2010
The 82nd Academy Awards Memorable Moments
The Academy's record of the 2010 ceremony, stating that Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for directing.
View source
Television Academy2025
Kathryn Hahn, Emmy Awards and Nominations
The Television Academy's award record for Kathryn Hahn, listing four Primetime Emmy nominations across 2017, 2021, 2023 and 2025.
View source
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Kathryn Grayson
The official Walk of Fame profile, giving Grayson's birth name as Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick and her birth in Winston-Salem in 1922.
View source
Office of the Federal Register2026
Federal Register documents full-text search API
The federal document search, which returns zero results for the day's exact phrase.
View source
Additional coverage
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Katherine
A reference entry stating that the Greek etymology is debated, listing four candidate derivations, dating the pure association to the early Christian era, and recording the 1973 US changeover.
View source
Behind the Name
Meaning, origin and history of the name Kathryn
The entry for Kathryn itself, which defines the spelling as a contracted form of Katherine and assigns it no date of coinage.
View source
Online Etymology Dictionary
Catherine
Traces the descent from Greek Aikaterine through Latin and French, dates the English h to the 16th century as probable folk etymology, and gives the saint's name day as 25 November.
View source
Encyclopaedia Britannica
St. Catherine of Alexandria
Records the 25 November feast day, notes that she is not mentioned before the 9th century and that her historicity is doubtful, and explains the origin of the Catherine wheel.
View source
Wiktionary
Catherine
An independent statement that the Ancient Greek form is of debated meaning, and that the th spelling comes from a folk etymology associating the name with katharos.
View source
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