Head to head · Boys' names
Casey vs Colson
#320 vs #310 in 2025
Colson is a whisker ahead (#310 vs #320 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Colson is holding its place on the charts, Casey is back after a long quiet spell. On momentum, Casey has the edge.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Casey leads 4 measures of 6; Colson leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Casey #917, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1890s: Casey #954, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1900s: Casey #856, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1910s: Casey #782, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1920s: Casey #1246, Colson #4347 — Casey higher
- 1930s: Casey #1310, Colson #3645 — Casey higher
- 1940s: Casey #947, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1950s: Casey #475, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1960s: Casey #364, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1970s: Casey #153, Colson — — Casey higher
- 1980s: Casey #86, Colson #5827 — Casey higher
- 1990s: Casey #129, Colson #3591 — Casey higher
- 2000s: Casey #281, Colson #1537 — Casey higher
- 2010s: Casey #508, Colson #988 — Casey higher
- 2020s: Casey #374, Colson #333 — Colson higher
Casey stood higher in 14 of 15 decades; Colson took the 2020s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Casey | Colson |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #917 | — |
| 1890s | #954 | — |
| 1900s | #856 | — |
| 1910s | #782 | — |
| 1920s | #1246 | #4347 |
| 1930s | #1310 | #3645 |
| 1940s | #947 | — |
| 1950s | #475 | — |
| 1960s | #364 | — |
| 1970s | #153 | — |
| 1980s | #86 | #5827 |
| 1990s | #129 | #3591 |
| 2000s | #281 | #1537 |
| 2010s | #508 | #988 |
| 2020s | #374 | #333 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Casey
vigilant, watchful
The Irish surname Ó Cathasaigh means 'descendant of Cathasach', from cathasach, 'vigilant' or 'watchful'. That is the main road into English. A second road exists for girls: Casey has also been used as a short form of names beginning with Cass- or K-sounds, and as a spelling of the initials K.C.
cathasach → Ó Cathasaigh → Casey (surname) → Casey (given name)
How it traveled
Ó Cathasaigh was a family name in Ireland long before it was anybody's first name, borne by several distinct kindreds, and it was anglicized as Casey in the nineteenth century. Irish emigration carried it to the United States, where the American habit of promoting surnames to given names took hold of it.
Colson
"son of Col" — Col being a medieval short form of Nicholas
Two readings compete, and both are respectable. In one, Col is the clipped English pet form of Nicholas (the same root that gives Nicol and Nicholson), so Colson means "son of Nicholas." In the other, it stands on Cole, from Old English Cola, connected to col, "coal" — a byname for someone dark-haired or dark-complexioned. The surname record supports both lines, and medieval clerks were not in the habit of telling them apart.
Nicholas → Nicol → Col / Cole → Colson
How it traveled
Colson is an English patronymic surname, and its -son ending points to the north and east of England, where that way of forming family names took hold most firmly in the Middle Ages. It traveled to America as a family name, sitting on deeds and census pages for generations before anyone thought to put it on a birth certificate — and it appears in the given-name records from the 1920s onward, thinly at first.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Casey
KAY-see
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spellings Casey, Kasey and Kacey are all said the same way, which is convenient aloud and less so in writing.
- Case — The usual informal clip, used by family and friends rather than on paperwork.
- Cass — Heard more often for girls, where it overlaps with the short form of Cassandra and Cassidy.
- KC — A written shorthand as much as a spoken one, since the name already sounds like the two letters.
Colson
KOHL-sun
Two syllables, stress on the first. The o is long, as in coal. No real regional disagreement about it.
- Cole — The obvious everyday short form, and a fully established given name in its own right in the US — worth knowing that a Colson may simply be called Cole for life.
- Col — Informal and mostly spoken within the family; the medieval form the surname was built from in the first place.
- Colt — Heard informally among friends and teammates, though it is a separate given name elsewhere.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Casey if you want…
- a name fewer children share#320 in 2025 — casey will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name on the way upup 197 places on the charts in five years
Choose Colson if you want…
- a name most people already know#310 in 2025, 1,099 babies that year
- a name holding steadyColson is holding its place on the charts
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Casey
Strengths
- Spelled and said correctly on first hearing by almost everyone in the US, with no pronunciation to teach.
- In unbroken use as a first name since the late nineteenth century, so it reads as familiar rather than new in any generation.
- Works unchanged for a boy or a girl, and needs no adjustment if the child later prefers Case or Cass.
To consider
- Most Caseys are boys, but a real minority are girls, so strangers reading it on a list or an email will sometimes guess wrong. Families on either side of that split get used to a small correction now and then.
- Kasey and Kacey sound identical, so expect to spell it aloud fairly often — the name is well known, the spelling less automatic.
- A heavily covered American criminal trial in the early 2010s put the name in headlines for a while. That association has faded considerably, and the older ones — a railroad ballad, a baseball poem — have outlasted it.
Colson
Strengths
- Spells and sounds itself: a reader who knows Cole and knows -son gets it right on the first try.
- Carries a ready-made short form in Cole, which already stands on its own as an American given name.
- Documented as an English surname since the Middle Ages, so the name has a long paper trail behind its recent use as a first name.
To consider
- It lives in a crowded sound-neighborhood — Cole, Colton, Coleson, Carson, Colson. Expect a certain amount of gentle correction, and expect Coulson and Coleson to turn up on paperwork.
- Because it reads as a surname first, it will occasionally be taken for a last name on forms and in roll calls where names are listed surname-first.
- The wave of Colsons is very recent, so nearly everyone carrying the name right now is a child rather than an adult. That means few models for how it wears at fifty — and no accumulated associations to shake off either.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Casey and Colson in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Casey and Colson?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap
More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Casey and Colson — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Casey or Colson — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Casey or Colson?
- Colson, in 2025: Colson ranked #310 with 1,099 babies; Casey ranked #320 with 1,072 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Casey or Colson?
- Casey. Over the last five years Casey moved up 197 places; Colson moved up 41 places.
- Which is the older name, Casey or Colson?
- Casey entered the US charts in 1888; Colson entered the US charts in 1924. On the American record, Casey is the older name.
- How many people are named Casey and Colson?
- About 109,000 people named Casey are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 9,600 people named Colson are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Caseys or Colsons in the classroom?
- Casey will almost certainly be the only one in school. Colson will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
Sixty more head-to-heads are dealt in the arena every day — or line up Casey, Colson and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
Free to start · no account needed · everyone you invite votes in one tap