A female name. the name of a virgin martyr of Alexandria, d. 307. The Greek form of the name was Αίκατερίνη and the etymology is unknown. The Latin form was at first Katerina, later Katharina, with the spelling assimilated to that of καθαρός ‘pure’, the supposed origin of the name. Another fancied etymology was from Greek αίκία ‘torture’. The original form is preserved in the Russian Ekaterina (with pet-forms Katya, Katinka), and the earlier Latin form in the Italian Caterina. The legend of St Katharine, who was said to have been broken on a wheel before decapitation, grew up in Syria, the chief centre of her cult being on Mount Sinai. It was brought to western Europe by early Crusaders, and the first reference to her in England is in a miracle play founded on her story and performed at Dunstable in 1100. In 1148 Queen Matilda founded a collegiate church and hospital of St Katharine near the Tower. Her greatest popularity was in the 14th C. There are 62 English churches dedicated to her, and when bells came to be rung by wheel and rope they were often dedicated to St Katharine, who had been broken on a wheel. The usual Old French forms of the name were Caterine and Cateline (the latter under the influence of the diminutive suffix -line), and in Middle English it usually appears as Katerin, Katelin, or Catlin (cf. the surnames Catlin, Catling); the spelling with th came in about the 16th C, and in the 17th C the usual spelling is Catherne, Katherne. The name has been a steady favourite since its first introduction, changes in fashion only affecting the various pet-forms: Kitty seems to have been an early one, and by the end of the 16th C it had met the usual fate of common pet-names (e.g. Jill, Nanny, Parnel) and become a cant term for a loose woman. In the 16th and 17th C Kate was the common diminutive; Kitty came in again in the 18th and early 19th C, Kate, Katie in the late 19th C. All are now used, as well as Cathy and Kay. The Irish Cathleen, Kathleen, from Middle English Catlin, is now often used in England. The Gaelic Catriona (pronounced Catreena), Katrine, and Danish Karen are also sometimes met with.

Katerina Curia Regis Rolls 1196-1215, Hundred Rolls 1273, Feudal Aids 1498. Kateline Hundred Rolls 1273. Katerine, Kateryne 15th-C Brut. Kateryn Lincs 1456. Kytte William Langland, Piers Plowman c. 1360, Coventry Mysteries 15th C. Kit Yorks Poll Tax of West Riding of Yorkshire 1379 1379. Kate Coventry Mysteries 15th C.

The name is a diminutive formed from Καθαρά (thef), ‘pure,’ ‘clean,’ ‘unsullied,’ and Katharina (Catharina) may have been the earlier shape of the word. ‘Three other attributes are supposed to attach to Katharine—beauty, grace, and intellectual devotion. Several’—in Benedictines, it is six—‘Saints of the Roman Catholic Church have given lustre to the name, and hence, no doubt, its popularity in the Middle Ages’ (Swan); it still is popular—indeed, one of the four most frequently bestowed of f. Christian names.

A variant of the preceding.