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Home › Baby Names Directory › Catelynn

Catelynn

♀ Girl

How to Pronounce Catelynn

Pronounced KAYT-lin /ˈkeɪt.lɪn/High

Meaning: Catelynn is a modern respelling of Caitlin, the Irish form of Katherine, which traces to the Greek katharos, 'pure.' The Cate-lynn spelling breaks the name into recognizable English pieces and rose sharply around 2010 — the year the reality series Teen Mom made Catelynn Lowell a household name.Medium

In 30 seconds: Catelynn is a respelling of Caitlin (Irish for Katherine, 'pure'). Its sharp 2010 peak tracks Teen Mom's Catelynn Lowell.
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Origin MediumIrish, Greek
MeaningCatelynn is a modern respelling of Caitlin, the Irish form of Katherine, which traces to the Greek katharos, 'pure.' The Cate-lynn spelling breaks the name into recognizable English pieces and rose sharply around 2010 — the year the reality series Teen Mom made Catelynn Lowell a household name.
U.S. rank (2023)#13767 ↗ Rising
2023 U.S. births6 girls (0.00% of U.S. girls)
Peak year2010
Total births (all-time)≈ 822

Popularity in the U.S. · SSA data

peak 201019882023

U.S. births per year (Social Security Administration, 1880–present). Pink marker = peak year.

SSA data updated May 2026. How we source & verify this data.

History & Origin

Catelynn is a variant of Caitlin, the Irish form of Katherine, from the Greek for 'pure.' Its American use jumped around 2010, closely tracking the visibility of Catelynn Lowell on the reality series Teen Mom.

Catelynn crested around 2010 at roughly seventy girls a year — a rare, telly-driven spike for so specific a spelling — then fell back over the following decade. A Catelynn from the peak is now in her early-to-mid teens. It reads as an of-the-moment respelling rather than an enduring form.

Did you know? Caitlin has been respelled countless ways — Katelyn, Kaitlynn, Catelynn — and this particular form spiked almost overnight around 2010 as one televised namesake put it in front of a national audience.
Overall data confidence 66%
References — Catelynn — Respelling of Caitlin (Greek 'pure'); Teen Mom's Catelynn Lowell, 2010 peak

Variations

CaitlinKatelynKaitlynn

Nicknames

CateLynn

Famous Bearers

  • ★Catelynn Lowell (b. 1992)
    American reality-TV personality on MTV's 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, whose fame coincided with the name's 2010 SSA peak

If you like Catelynn…

Caitlin— the Irish base name Catelynn respells
Kaitlyn— a sister spelling of the same name
Katelyn— a close variant of the period
Madelyn— a like -lyn ending girls' name of the era

Explore names like Catelynn

By themeirishrespellednamesake2010s

All themes →All meanings →All origins →

Frequently Asked

What does the name Catelynn mean?

Catelynn is a form of Caitlin, the Irish version of Katherine, which comes from the Greek for 'pure.'

How do you pronounce Catelynn?

It's said KAYT-lin /ˈkeɪt.lɪn/ — two syllables, stress on the first, like Caitlin.

Is Catelynn a boy or girl name?

Catelynn is used as a girl's name.

How popular is Catelynn?

Catelynn was rare until a sharp rise near the start of the twenty-tens, tied to a reality-TV namesake, and has faded since.

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