What does "cathy" mean?

A diminutive of the female given name Catherine and of its variant forms, also used as a formal given name in the 20th century.

Cathy

//ˈkæθi// name

name ·Rare ·Advanced level

Proper Noun

1
A diminutive of the female given name Catherine and of its variant forms, also used as a formal given name in the 20th century.
"It was named Catherine, but he never called it the name in full, as he had never called the first Catherine short, probably because Heathcliff had a habit of doing so. The little one was always Cathy, it formed to him a distinction from the mother, and yet, a connection with her; ( - - - )"

"John and Cathy have different tastes and different characters. Trying to get them together is like putting a square peg in a round hole."

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.