Given name & surname
Cate
“one who is pure; virginal”
In English use, Cate is a diminutive of Catherine. One English interpretation is “one who is pure; virginal.” Its derivation is not certain.
Meaning & origin
What it means
In English use, Cate is a diminutive of Catherine. One English interpretation is “one who is pure; virginal.” Its derivation is not certain.
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
Cate is a diminutive of Catherine. Catherine possibly comes from French, and ultimately from Ancient Greek.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
In English usage, Cate is a diminutive of Catherine.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1980. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Cate through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,789
- 0 boys · 1,789 girls
- Most popular year
- 2008
- 152 babies
- 2025
- 11
- #8,978 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −41%
- Cooling
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 11 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 8,978 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 40.7% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Its largest published annual count for girls was 152 in 2008. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 2,631 as a first name in 2020; 4,645 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Cate’s family of names
In English usage, Cate is a diminutive of Catherine. In English usage, Cate has a conventional equivalent in the German form Käte. Cate has a related form in Catherine.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 2
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Cate
- Cate BlanchettAustralian actor and producer (born 1969)
- Cate CampbellAustralian swimmer, Olympic gold medallist, world champion, former world record-holderborn 1992
- Cate ShortlandAustralian film and television writer and directorborn 1968
- Cate Le BonWelsh musician, songwriter and record producerborn 1983
- Cate FaehrmannAustralian politicianborn 1970
Characters named Cate: Cate Archer (video game character from the No One Lives Forever video game series).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Cate, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.