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Catelyn

Girl name · 3 babies recorded · 1974–2025

Catelyn: 3 babies born in Scotland since 1974, given to girls, peaking at 3 births in 2000.

Catelyn is a modern respelling of Catherine, ultimately from the Greek *Aikaterine*, whose meaning is uncertain—it may derive from *katharos* (“pure”) or be linked to the goddess Hecate. Fans of George R.R. Martin’s *A Song of Ice and Fire* will recognise Catelyn Stark, the resolute matriarch of Winterfell, a name given a distinctly Scottish cadence by the author (who drew on the historical spelling “Catelyn”). The related “Catherine” boasts royal bearers from Catherine of Aragon to Catherine, Princess of Wales, and lends its root to Scotland’s Cairngorms—though the mountain name actually comes from Gaelic *càrn* (“cairn”). This spelling softens a classic into something both literary and approachable, and in Scotland it has charted steadily since the 1970s, peaking in the mid-2000s on the back of the television series.