What is the nickname of Catherine Bennet?

Catherine Bennet’s nickname is Kitty. She is the fourth of Mr and Mrs Bennet’s five daughters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and the novel and its character references regularly identify her as Catherine “Kitty” Bennet.

Kitty is older than her youngest sister, Lydia, but is strongly influenced by her. The two younger Bennet girls spend much of the novel pursuing the militia officers stationed near Meryton, and Kitty often follows Lydia’s lead rather than showing an independent personality. Her behavior is described as silly, irritable, and immature, although she is not portrayed as quite as reckless as Lydia.

Kitty’s development is easy to overlook because she has less of the plot’s attention than Elizabeth, Jane, or Lydia. Near the end, however, the narrative says that she improves after spending more time with Elizabeth and Jane and away from Lydia’s influence. Later biographical tradition, especially James Edward Austen-Leigh’s memoir of Austen, says that Kitty married a clergyman living near Pemberley. “Kitty” is therefore not a mistaken form of Kathy or Kate, but the established familiar name for Catherine Bennet.