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A given name in German, Danish and 1 more
Language contexts for this entry: German, Danish, Finnish
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German (Germany, Berlin)
01 / Meaning & origin
Käte is a feminine given name documented in German, Danish and Finnish.
[1] andere Schreibweise von Käthe
02 / Across borders
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6
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0 countries with published statistics. Language records show cultural connections; they do not measure how common a name is.
4 of 6 countries
03 / By the numbers
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No official statistics are imported for this spelling. No statistical dataset covering this spelling has been imported yet. See data coverage.
04 / Through time
Passages quoted verbatim from public-domain reference works. They reflect the scholarship of their time, not current consensus, and may use obsolete spellings.
Kate— “pure”
The cause of the various ways of spelling this word would appear to be that the more ancient English made no use of the letter _K_, which only came in with printing and the types imported from Germany. Miss Catherine Fanshaw wrote a playful poem in defence of the commencement with _C_, avouching _K_ to be no Saxon letter, and referring to the shrewish Katharina and the Russian empress as examples of the bad repute of the _K_; but her argument breaks down, since the faithful…
The cause of the various ways of spelling this word would appear to be that the more ancient English made no use of the letter _K_, which only came in with printing and the types imported from Germany. Miss Catherine Fanshaw wrote a playful poem in defence of the commencement with _C_, avouching _K_ to be no Saxon letter, and referring to the shrewish Katharina and the Russian empress as examples of the bad repute of the _K_; but her argument breaks down, since the faithful Spanish Catalina, as English queen, wrote herself Katharine, while the ‘Shrew’ in Italy could only have been Caterina, and the Russian empress is on her coins Ekaterina. On the whole, Katherine would seem properly to be a namesake of the Alexandrian princess, Catherine, the Votaress of Sienna. No name is more universal in all countries and in all ranks, partly from its own beauty of sound, partly from association, and none has more varied contractions. Our truest old English ones are Kate and Kitty—the latter was almost universal in the last century, though now supplanted by the Scottish Katie and the graceful Irish Kathleen.
Yonge, History of Christian Names (1884), Part III, Chapter V (Christian Greek Names), Section XIV (Katharine) · Public domain (Project Gutenberg)
People recorded with this given name in Wikidata. Their names may use a different spelling, or include it as a middle or baptismal name.
German-born American theoretical physicist (1906-1972)
Recorded as a middle or baptismal name
A little story to keep
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06 / Behind the facts
Review status: Source-reported — no editorial review recorded yet. Last data change 2026-10-17.
Wiktionary text: CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata: CC0. Commons recordings retain their individual file licences. Complete attribution is available in each group above and alongside each chart.
