Katelyn

I'm a Katelyn, from the American Midwest, who was born in the early 2000's. I will share a bit of insight about growing up with this name.

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I've only encountered four other girls with the exact "Katelyn" spelling of my name. However, in high school, every classroom seemed to have at least two girls with one of the million variations of Kaitlin, Catelyn, Kaitlyn, etc. It was an extremely popular name choice in my area, and I've met almost every variation of "Katelyn" there ever was.

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I was a shy girl in school, so I was always known as "Katelyn Lastname." I always had to use my last name or its initial. My name has been misspelled as "Katelynn" on more than one occasion. The popularity of my name never bothered me, but I can understand why it can be irritating to some.

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Truthfully, I think "Katelyn" and any variation of it is a beautiful name. Every girl I've met with a "Katelyn" name was incredibly kind, considerate, and lovely to be around. I only have positive things to say about my impression of the name. I am, and have always been, grateful to my parents for blessing me with my name.

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I recommend that parents should at least consider choosing this name. Now that the name has seemed to undergo a steep decline in popularity, any baby girl named a variety of "Katelyn" will make it through all twelve years of school without meeting another girl with her name. The meaning of the name, "pure," is especially sweet. Although "Caitlin" is the traditional Irish spelling, "Katelyn" is the easiest for Americans to understand, spell, and pronounce. Plus, "Katelyn" has the immediate nickname of "Kate."

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Moving forward, I predict that the "Katelyn" name and its variants will age poorly. It is far from a timeless name. The extreme jump in popularity of this name only lasted two decades. Today, "Katelyn" is hovering around 752, and I can see it falling entirely out of the top 1000 within the decade. In about fifty-sixty years, it will be funny to see a once super trendy name like "Katelyn" become the next name for grannies. :)

Sweet name!

In my opinion, Katelyn is way too hard to pronounce, it's quite difficult. Caitlin is ok but Katelyn just isn't a favourite of mine.

It's better than Caitlin.

This is my legal name and my whole life I've despised it. Do not name your children this.

Not a fan. Very dated!

I don't get all the mournful comments. It's a good name.

I truly do not know how to spell this name anymore. It has way too many variants. Just look:
Katelyn
Katelynn
Kaitlin
Kaitlyn
Kaitlynn
Caitlin
Caitlynn
Catelyn
Catelin
Catelynn

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Where do we draw the line?

I think it’s an ugly name.

I don’t normally like variant names, but this one is kind of cute as it doubles as a combination of Kate and Lyn. It’s definitely a flash in the pan name, though, and this particular spelling will feel very dated soon.

I love the name Katelyn. I think it's very beautiful and aesthetic.

I prefer Kathleen to Caitlin.

It's not as bad as some of the other variants and it even looks somewhat pleasant, but it doesn't look like it came from Caitlin (which is supposed to be pronounced like Kathleen), but rather from adding "lyn" to Kate. I cannot picture this name on anyone past the age of 17.

My BFF's name is Katelyn though she goes by Katie. My friend hates the name Katelyn and when I call her that she gets mad. I honestly love the name Katelyn and do not know why she hates it.

My name is Katelynn, spelled a different way than most. My friends think my name is "good", and that it makes me attractive. I am 1/8 African, and my friends think the name fits me. I honestly don't, I would assume the name is best for paler people. But it doesn't matter, because I am stuck with the name, and other people seem to think that this name is fine. So I suppose it's fine for me, too.

Great spelling!

My cousin has this name. It is pretty and cute, but I hear it a lot, and there are so many different spellings. This name is very nice though, with Kate and Lynn as nickname options.

My sister's name is Katelyn and she has gone by Kat and Kate and her name right now, everyone calls her Katelyn except her boyfriend.

My name is Katelyn, my mom had trouble when she was pregnant with my brother and I (I'm a twin) trying to pick a name. She got the idea from what my grandpa jokingly called her. Her name is Gwendolyn, but from some reason when he likes to pick on her or was joking with her he called her Katie (No clue why). Well she liked the name Kate and started with that, but didn't like that it was so short... so she took the Lyn from the end of her name and combined them to get Katelyn.

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*side note: I only answer to the nicknames Kate or Kat, I never answer to Katie... the only person I let get away with that is my mom. I just don't like the name Katie (No disrespect to any Katies out there).

Not a name I'd ever use myself for several reasons but when it comes to the spelling, this along with Katelynn, Kaitlyn & Kaitlynn are my favorites. I absolutely hate this name spelled with a C. Caitlin & Caitlyn for example I would never use; character, pet or child.

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The most spellings I've seen used has been Katelyn & Katelynn.

I wish my DH liked this name... I find that this spelling makes the most sense. Kate+Lynn=Katelyn. I don't know any Catherine's who go by Cait or Caitie or Kait. Kate is how you spell Kate.

It's an okay name, if you look like a "Katelyn".

This is my name. My mum wanted to name me it because she liked the nickname Kate and Lyn(n) is a family name, plus she liked how they sounded together.
Caitlin/Kaitlyn/etc is quite common for girls of my generation (I was born in the 90s) in Canada. There are always others with this name in my class and I am one of many Katelyns/etc that my friends are friends with. I also always have to spell my name whenever someone asks, as they always want to stick Is in it. Even though this spelling is quite common, I can never find a keychain or whatever with my name spelled correctly on it.

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It's not that great of name and it's still rather common. I've always thought this spelling looks quite juvenile, too.
If someone were asking me if they should name their daughter Caitlin or Katelyn (or any other variant spelling), I'd tell them to pick Caitlin.

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That being said, it's my name, and it suits me well. I'd never change it.

Oh flipping heck, another flipping variation of Caitlin!

Very trashy and dumb looking. If you want to call your kid Katie name her Katherine. You can't picture a business woman called Katelyn.

I was going to use Kaitlyn, but this spelling was given to me as a suggestion on another Web site. If you want to honor someone with a name like Kathryn, it's a good way to do it. It may be popular now, but it may not be in a few years which is fine with me.

A trashy butchering of the name Caitlin.

Love love love this name -- this spelling -- but popularity and a countless amount of variants really bugs me.

Hate it! It's like someone couldn't decide between Kate (the most over-used nickname for the name Catherine) and Lyn/Lynn (the most over-used middle name ever). Or it's like someone didn't know how to spell "Caitlin" right.

I'm not a great fan of this, but I do think that it's the best possible way to spell a name pronounced Kate-lyn. 'Caitlin' annoys the hell out of me. It is an Irish name, people! And it's pronounced Kat-leen! It's like deciding to pronounce 'Juan' as Jew-ann.

I named my daughter Katelyn. I think it's an elegant name with this spelling. Especially with the nickname Kate. The other spelling of Caitlin seems like such a differant name. It's amazing how the same name spelled differently can change a whole name.

This is my name and I love it! I only know one other Katelyn and she spells it Caitlin, and I know a Kaelyn. The only thing is, at P.E. our teacher does not say which Katelyn, so we always wind up playing for the wrong team.

I think that Katelyn is the best name for a girl! And it looks much better spelled this way.

I think Katielyn is so much more cuter and prettier than Katelyn.

I don’t see what’s so great about this name. Kate is a great name, Lyn is nice. But Katelyn? This name just doesn’t do it for me.

I know a Katelyn, a Caitlin, a Kaitlynne, a Kaitlin, a Caitlyn, and a Catelynn. It gets a bit old.

Best there ever was! I like to spell it this way, sooooooo elegant! I am so partial though, because it's my first name!

I personally just love this name and how it is spelled. It is way more proper and elegant sounding than any of the other spelling possibilities.

I have always liked the name Katelyn. Such a pretty name. The other spelling I like is Caitlin.

This name looks less Irish than Caitlin.

I love the name Katelyn. I like it because the spelling looks very elegant and sophisticated. This is my favourite spelling of this name - it has so many different variations. I also like the name Kate which is why I wouldn't mind if it was shortened. That is another reason why I wouldn't spell Katelyn with a C. For a similar name for a boy, I would go for Kayden, which often gets shortened to Kade, which sounds like Kate, LOL.