How popular is the baby name Katyna in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Katyna.

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Popularity of the baby name Katyna


Posts that mention the name Katyna

Interesting one-hit wonder names in the U.S. baby name data

single flower

They came, they went, and they never came back!

These baby names are one-hit wonders in the U.S. baby name data. That is, they’ve only popped up once, ever, in the entire dataset of U.S. baby names (which accounts for all names given to at least 5 U.S. babies per year since 1880).

There are thousands of one-hit wonders in the dataset, but the names below have interesting stories behind their single appearance, so these are the one-hits I’m writing specific posts about. Just click on a name to read more.

2020s

  • 2020: Jexi

2010s

2000s

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s

1910s

1900s

  • (none yet)

1890s

As I discover (and write about) more one-hit wonders in the data, I’ll add the names/links to this page. In the meanwhile, do you have any favorite one-hit wonder baby names?

Image: Adapted from Solitary Poppy by Andy Beecroft under CC BY-SA 2.0.

[Latest update: Apr. 2024]

What gave the baby name Katina a boost in 1972?

Title of the TV soap opera "Where the Heart Is" (1969-1973)

The baby name Cotina was a top debut name in 1972, coming out of nowhere to be given to an impressive 109 baby girls that year:

  • 1978: unlisted
  • 1977: 6 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1976: 5 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1975: 13 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1974: 33 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1973: 65 baby girls named Cotina
  • 1972: 109 baby girls named Cotina [debut]
  • 1971: unlisted
  • 1970: unlisted

But that’s not all. The popularity of similar names — most notably Katina — spiked in ’72 as well [rankings in brackets]:

1971197219731974
Katina962,747
[117th]
2,469
[120th]
766
[307th]
Catina151,370
[202nd]
1,236
[207th]
329
[515th]
Contina.209
[696th]
124
[962nd]
36
Cotina.109*6533
Katena.27*28.
Kateena.22*135
Cantina.17*157
Catena.15*85
Kattina.15*..
Kotina.12*8.
Katyna.11*..
Cateena.10*9.
Kontina.10*..
Kantina.9*65
Katinna.7*6.
Cattina.6*9.
Catinna..11*.
*Debut

(Kattina, Katyna, Kontina, and Catinna were one-hit wonders.)

Why?

It took me a while to come up with a decent theory for this one, as the only person the search engines kept directing me to was Greek actress Katina Paxinou (1900-1973).

I was stuck until, in a decades-old Village Voice article, I spotted a reference to a fictional soap-opera baby named Katina. She was “born” in early 1972 on the CBS soap opera Where the Heart Is (1969-1973).

Christina (Katina's mother) on the TV program "Where the Heart Is."
Katina’s mother, Christine

The program was set in suburban Connecticut and focused “on the sexual and psychological intrigues of the wealthy but highly dysfunctional Hathaway family.” One of the adult Hathaway siblings (Allison) had a husband (Hugh) who had an affair with a woman named Christine. This affair resulted in an illegitimate child — a baby girl called Katina.

Expectant parents tend to pay particular attention to TV babies, and soap operas have historically influenced baby name rankings quite a bit, so the one-two punch of a baby born on a soap opera must have had some sort of impact.

Then again, I can’t explain why the variant “Contina” jumped so much higher than, say, “Katena” or “Kateena,” which are much more Katina-like. So perhaps I’m missing something.

Does anyone out there remember Where the Heart Is? Do you think the soap was popular enough to have started a short-lived Katina craze in the early ’70s?

Sources: Where the Heart is | Soap Opera Wiki | Fandom, Where the Heart Is (TV series) – Wikipedia, SSA