Catalina

The more I think about this and the more I read, the more I think Catalina is unrelated to Katherine and has Roman origins.

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1. It doesn't make sense that the r of Katerina in Greek would shift to an l in Spanish. Plenty of other names with r are retained in Spanish, including other names with Greek origins (e.g., Maria, Irene).

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2. The languages where Catalina is used relatively frequently (Romanian, Spanish, and Portuguese) are very geographically diverse as a group, but are all Romance languages, with Latin origins.

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3. As others have noted, Catilina was a Roman name, specifically a cognomen. Lucius Sergius Catilina was a Roman senator in the first century BCE, for example.

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4. Not sure what the meaning of Catilina was. Latin words with similar roots seem to be related to the meaning of "plate" or "disc," as in a plate you eat off of, or a millstone.

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Interestingly, similar sounding names that have been attributed as variants of Katherine intersect with this history. Kaitlin, for example, appears to have been derived from the Old French Cateline, which is again involving a Romance language (that is further removed from Latin than Spanish or Romanian), and seems even more similar to Catilina than Katerina (consider that Lucius Sergius Catilina is often referred to as Catiline, for instance). Katalin, the Basque name, is Basque, which has one of the most mysterious linguistic origins of all extant languages.

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It seems reasonable to me to hypothesize that Catalina might have something to do with Catalonia too, although the resemblance and historical relationship with the Roman Catilina seems very strong.

I thought this was an Italian name because of the letters I-N-A at the end.

Catalina is not a version of Katherine/Catherine. This is an assumption made by the first marriage of King Henry VII of England to Princess Catalina of Aragon, and her name was changed to Catherine at her marriage, as it was the closest to the English name. IT IS NOT A TRANSLATION.

After further thought, I think that "Catalina" most probably has some connection to the Roman Cataline, a power seeker in the court of one of the Caesars.

"Catalina" has the root "catal" like "Catalunia", "Catalan", therefore "Catalina" could originate from the name of Catalunia, which is a part of Spain.

The name Catalina is obviously connected to the city of Catalonia.

To those linking the name Catalina to Catalonia: please stop talking about what you don't know. The root for Catalina and its equivalents, Catherine, Catarina, Caterina, Katalin, etc. is the Greek Katharos which means "pure". This word evolved in different ways in the different languages and has NOTHING to do with Cataluña, which is not of Greek origin.

1) Catalonia is -not- a city, at least not a Spanish city. It's an autonomous community in Spain, but there are many Catalan communities in the areas around the Spanish-French border.
2) Catalonia in Spanish is Cataluña. In Catalan it is Catalunya. In Aranese it is Catalonha. I see no connection with these words to the name 'Catalina'. It is probably a variant of Catherine.