Katherine or Catherine?

Catherine. You could still have Cate/Catie as a nickname..

K is best!

With a K definately. Much better if shortened to Kate. Otherwise you have the whole is it C. Jones or K Jones if they generally go by Kate.

MrsD - but she is known to have spelled it herself on occasion as Katharine (and let's not forget that her name was actually Catalina anyway) and the other Catherine/Katherine wives had different and varying spellings. My point wasn't that she was definitely Catherine vs Katherine, but that you can't say that Katherine is the only correct way to spell it based on Tudor spellings, because their spellings were very fluid and individuals would often spell their own names differently on different documents, and other people would spell it how they saw fit.

Evertonmint - it may come up like that if you google it - lots of people in the modern day call her Catherine of Aragon.

But if you look at what was actually done in Henry VIII's court her initial was always displayed as K.

Although it's originally a Greek name, meaning "pure"

That's debatable, it can also mean 'trouble'.

Kathryn, Cathryn? Spell it however you prefer.

Please don't. It's not you who has to have every form redone, get birthday cards with the wrong spelling, have to return certificates because the spelling is wrong.

Use one of the two in your OP.

I'm not convinced by the Katherine of Aragon argument as showing that is correct. He had 2 other wives of this name and if you google them you get different spellings. I've just seen Catherine of Aragon, Kathryn Howard and Katherine Parr which is not how I thought any of them were. In Tudor times people would often spell their names in a variety of ways and literacy levels were abysmal (Anne Boleyn was aka Bullen, Katherine Parr signed her name as Kateryn). Spell it how you want - no version is more correct than any other and it's a beautiful name

Absolutely 100% Katherine with a K.

Catherine is NOT the classic spelling it is the FRENCH spelling!

Oddly, I really love Katherine but really dislike Catherine... don't even get my started on Kathryn etc

Sorry - arbiters.

but several friends prefer Catherine as that is the correct spelling

No it's not! "Katherine" is the usual English spelling; "Catherine" is the usual French spelling.

It's a family name in my neck of the woods, and always with a K But in France, you'll generally see the name with a C

Although it's originally a Greek name, meaning "pure"

And those are the two classic versions -- variations like "Kathryn" etc are a travesty IMO

PS - please don't take the fact that Kate Middleton is called Catherine as a suggestion that it is "classier", more traditional etc.

Her parents may be very admirable - obviously terrific business people - but not considered the arbiter's of good taste, correctness etc.

This is not meant as a criticism of her or her family, only that I do not think they would necessarily get this "right".

I prefer Katharine with an "a". I think it looks much prettier.

I haven't read all of the posts but can I just said that Catherine is absolutely NOT the correct spelling.

Katherine is the original English spelling. For instance, when Katherine of Aragon came over to England from Spain, even being called Catalina with a C is Spanish, her name was always written as Katherine - records show that the initial K was always used for her on designs etc. This is going back to the late 15th century.

Ultimately there is nothing wrong with choosing the spelling Catherine if you prefer it, but don't let anyone tell you that this is the original spelling because it isn't. Sorry if this sounds a bit over emphatic but it is a bit of a bug bear of mine.

You can of course use Kate with either spelling.

I have Katherine for dd5. But we only ever call her Katie.

Catherine, its the one everyone will automatically think of (especially post KM) and I think it looks prettier with a C, the K looks hard. NN can still be Kate or Katy (or Cate/Caty if she wants to be a bit different) or Cat.

Definitely Catherine for me, but I'm a bit bias cos that's my youngest's name.
You can still shorten it to Kate/Katie. My dd's friends use her full name or Cat and I call her KitCat

I much prefer Catherine. However I ruled it out in any form for DD because I hate Cat/Kat as a NN.

Slightly prefer Katharine (with 'a' not 'e')

Don't like C/Kathy or C/Kath so much as it sounds a bit old.

Katharine - by far the best version!

No competition. Catherine.

Nooo.. Go for Katherine with a K. To me it sounds a lot more classic and elegant. It's a name we are thinking of too (MIL and my grannie are both Katherines) but I'm not sure as really don't like Kathy, kath, Katie etc.

Catherine - obviously!

Catherine. It's softer somehow and classier.

My sister's Katharine which I think is the best spelling but she was nearly ten before she learned to speak her full name properly because she's always been known as Kate and everyone always spells it wrong. I think with any of the spellings people will always have to ask or get it wrong anyway though because there are so many different ways of spelling it.

Katherine.