Meaning & Origin
A female given name from Irish, one of the modern spelling variants of Caitlin.
Kaitlin is a girl's and boy's baby name of Irish origin, one of the most common anglicized spellings of Caitlín — the Irish form of Catherine, from the Greek katharos meaning 'pure.' Kaitlin is the spelling that became standard in 1980s and 1990s America, when Catherine variants dominated baby name charts.
Kaitlin, Caitlin, Katelyn, and Kaitlyn together formed one of the largest spelling-variant families in American naming history — reflecting the era's enthusiasm for phonetic spelling. For parents naming children in the 2020s, Kaitlin carries a warm, unmistakably 1990s character — a name that evokes a specific American cultural moment.