Cato

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Kato in KR South Korea.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 22 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Cato is also recorded as 4 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname9.9K records spelled Cato6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Cató, Ćato, Cáto, Çato

• a separate surname2.6K records spelled Cato3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India

  Also written Ćato, Catò

• Italian surname705 records spelled Cato3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Italy, Philippines, United Kingdom

  Also written Catò, Čato

• a separate surname704 records spelled Cato2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Norway, United States

  Also written Ćato

62 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Cato is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In German, from the Roman name Cato; used for a stern moralist

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In English, Acronym of Cadet Administrative and Training Order.

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In English, M. Porcius. Roman statesman

  as a name·Pronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names

• In German, weibl. Vom., ursprünglich französische, dann niederländische Kurzform von

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• In Latin, dative/ablative masculine/neuter singular of catus

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

NO SSB — Navn (1880–present) — 69 years between 1945–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Jack Catob. 1889AUAustralian photographer and photo historian (1889–1971)
• Nancy Catob. 1917AUAustralian author
• Bob Catob. 1923USAmerican graphic designer (1923-1999)
• Keefe Catob. 1958USformer baseball player from the United States
• Molly Scott Catob. 1963GBBritish economist and Member of the European Parliament (born 1963)
• Magnus Catob. 1967SESwedish handball player
• Suzy Catob. 1968NZNew Zealand children's entertainer
• Kelvin Catob. 1974USAmerican basketball player (born 1974)
• Lurine Catob. 1974GBBritish Gospel singer, songwriter and session vocalist
• Cordell Catob. 1992TTTrinidadian footballer

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 328 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Cato?

We estimate roughly 19 thousand people bear Cato (counting its spellings and scripts) across 17 countries in our records.

In which country does Cato have the most bearers?

We estimate about 8.3 thousand people bear Cato in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled cato.

Where is Cato most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Cato is densest in St. Vincent & Grenadines — about 1 in 337 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Cato compared with other names?

In St. Vincent & Grenadines, Cato is the 37th most common surname of 1,182 surnames recorded there.

What does the name Cato mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) A different form of Catto; (ii) anglicization of Spanish Cato, from a personal name perhaps inspired by the Roman statesman Cato.