Katie

Katie began as a pet form of Catherine, and it is also used as a short form of Kathleen and Caitlín. Catherine goes back to the Greek Aikaterine, whose meaning is debated. Since Roman times it has been linked with the Greek word katharos, pure, but that link is thought to be a folk explanation rather than the true origin. The name spread through Saint Catherine of Alexandria, who is remembered in the Catherine wheel.

By the late twentieth century Katie was well established as a name on its own. It reached the CSO list in 1973 and climbed through the 1980s and 1990s.

It was number 2 in 2004. It reached number 2 again in 2008, its peak year, when 667 girls were given the name. In Northern Ireland it went one better and topped the list in 2004.