Kate is the short form of Katherine, which goes back to the Greek Aikaterine and has long been explained as "pure", from katharos. Shakespeare's Kate in The Taming of the Shrew, the actress Kate Winslet and Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, have kept it crisp and classic. Kate peaked at number 136 in 2007 and has slipped since, from number 222 in 2015 to number 522 in 2025.