ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1343
http://www.s-gabriel.org/1343
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From: "S Friedemann" 
24 Nov 1998

Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel!

You wanted to know if either of the feminine names <Kitty> or <Kit> were
used in England between 1050 and 1300.  Here is the information we have
found.

It's often difficult to find early evidence for diminutive (or pet) forms of
names, because they weren't usually used in official documents.  The
earliest evidence usually comes from bynames, the nicknames used to
distinguish different people with the same given name.  In many cases a
person's byname was simply the given name of one of his or her parents.
Thus, our earliest example of a pet form of Katherine is the name <Richard
Catin> 1177: this Richard was doubtless the son of a woman named <Catherine>
or <Cateline> and called <Cat> or <Catin>.  From about the same time we have
<Wigar Kitte> 1173-79.  This Wigar was probably the son of someone called
<Kitte>; unfortunately, <Kitte> was a pet form of both <Christopher> and
<Catherine>, and there's no way to tell which it represents in this
particular case. [2]

Another pet form of <Catherine> or <Cateline> that is found in your period
is <Catel>.  It occurs in this spelling as a byname in 1275, and as <Cattle>
it appears four years later as a given name. [2]  It is also likely that
some early instances of the byname <Cat> (e.g., <Margaret Kat> 1202) are pet
forms of <Cateline>, though they may also be nicknames referring to the
animal. [2]

After your period there are many clearcut examples of pet forms of
<Catherine> along the lines of <Kit>: <Kytte>, probably before 1378; <kitte>
c.1378; <Kit> 1379; and <Kitt>, probably c.1400.  There is also evidence
that by the late 14th century the name had become so common that it was
already being used as a term for a wanton. [3,1]  This strongly suggests
that at least some of the ambiguous early examples are pet forms of
<Catherine> or <Cateline> and not of <Christopher>.

To sum up, we have no evidence for a pet form of <Catherine> before the late
12th century.  The earliest certain forms are based on <Cat> and include
<Catin> and <Catel>.  The existence of these forms makes it almost certain
that <Cat> (<Kat>, <Catt>, etc.) was also used.  <Kitte> and <Kytte> were
definitely used in your period, but the
available examples may be from <Christopher> rather than from <Catherine>.
However, on the basis of later evidence we think it very likely that this
was already a pet form of <Catherine> in the 13th century.

We hope that this letter has been useful to you, and that you will not
hesitate to write again if any part was unclear or if you have further
questions.  Research and commentary on this letter was provided by Maridonna
Benvenuti, Arval Benicoeur, and Zenobia Naphtali.

For the Academy,
--Aryanhwy merch Catmael & Talan Gwynek
     November 24, 1998

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References:

[1] Withycombe, E.G., _The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names_,
3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), s.n. Katharine

[2] Reaney, P. H., & R. M. Wilson, _A Dictionary of English Surnames_
(London: Routledge, 1991; Oxford University Press, 1995), s.nn. Caton, Catt,
Cattel, Katin.

[3] McSparran, Francis, ed., _The Middle English Dictionary_ (WWW:
University
of Michigan, June 1998).
http://www.hti.umich.edu/dict/med/