I believe this is one of the (numerous) variants of her name by which Kate is known in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. I'm a Katherine myself, and I kind of like this version of the name, but on the whole I think it's probably more A's than anybody really needs.
Katharina was almost my friend's name (her mom's German), but her mom took out the 'h' to make it Katarina, since she feared her being called KATH-a-reen-ah instead of KAT-a-reen-ah. Kat, unfortunately, gets her name mispronounced as Katrina. I think I prefer Katharina over Katarina, as it looks less harsh.
― Anonymous User 11/29/2007
I once knew a girl named this. She went by Kat. I thought the name was quite silly sounding Kath-ah-reen-a whooo I need a breath, that was so tiring to say. Yeah this is a stupid name.
This is such a beautiful name. I had a friend from Germany named Katharina and she was a foreign exchange student. She was so sweet. By the way, it's pronounced as Kah-tah-ree-nah not kath-a-ree-nah. I'm surprised that most of the people who commented on this name didn't like it, whereas it's pronounced the same way as Katarina, and the majority of the people who commented on that name loved it.
Katharina of Austria (1533-1572), fifth daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor. She later married Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland.
No one should ever have this name. It confuses co-workers, who constantly misspell it. In the two months I have worked with a Katharina, I've seen seven different spellings of her name. I'm not even sure what the correct spelling of her name is anymore. The office has tried to adapt by using a nickname, but no one can agree on one, so now everyone calls her something different. It's a complete disaster. Avoid.