Katniss
- Gender
- Girl
- Say it
- KAT-nis
- Origin
- English
- US rank, 2025
- #11,928 for girls
Katniss is a girls' name of English origin, meaning “arrowhead water plant”. In 2025 it ranked 11,928th for girls in the US (7 babies).
What does Katniss mean?
English: from the plant name katniss
“arrowhead water plant”
From Katniss Everdeen of Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, named after an edible water plant also called arrowhead.
Is Katniss a girl's or a boy's name?
Katniss is a girls' name. In 2025, it was given to 7 girls in the US. Too few boys were given it to be listed.
How popular is Katniss in the US?
- Rank in 2025
- #11,928among girls
- Babies in 2025
- 7about 1 in 230,000 girls
- Five-year trend
- Too rare to calltoo few babies to tell
- Same name in a class
- under 1%chance among 15 girls
In 2025, 7 girls in the US were named Katniss, making it the 11,928th most popular name for girls. Five years earlier, in 2020, it was 8,401st. Its busiest year was 2014, with 38 girls. It first appears in the records in 2012.
2025 had fewer girls named Katniss than any year since 2019.
Half of all the girls named Katniss in the US since 1880 were born between 2014 and 2020, the years shaded on the chart below.
Katniss in the US, year by year
| Year | Girls | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | #11,928 |
| 2024 | 9 | #10,266 |
| 2023 | 9 | #10,307 |
| 2022 | 9 | #10,377 |
| 2021 | 14 | #7,625 |
| 2020 | 12 | #8,401 |
| 2019 | 5 | #15,532 |
| 2018 | 7 | #12,459 |
| 2017 | 8 | #11,611 |
| 2016 | 32 | #4,422 |
| 2015 | 30 | #4,583 |
| 2014 | 38 | #3,923 |
| 2013 | 17 | #7,027 |
| 2012 | 12 | #9,105 |
Nicknames for Katniss
- Kat
Names like Katniss
Names given in the same years and the same naming tradition, with a similar sound.
Collins Harlow Oakley Miller Kinsley Kollyns Everly Harper Klarity Journee Halo Sevyn
More English names
Lily Evelyn Hudson Ivy Grace Violet Willow Daisy Poppy Riley Mason Cooper Ruby Hallie Hazel Carter
Sources
Figures from Popular Baby Names (US Social Security Administration). Nameling last updated them on 20 October 2026. How the figures are worked out, and the data to download.
To cite this page: Nameling, “Katniss: name meaning, origin and popularity”, https://www.nameling.co.uk/names/katniss, updated 20 October 2026.