Head to head · Boys' names
Cody vs Colson
#318 vs #310 in 2025 · both holding its place on the charts
Colson is a whisker ahead (#310 vs #318 in 2025) and both are holding its place on the charts. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
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
The tape is even: Cody and Colson each lead 3 measures of 6.
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: Cody #888, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1890s: Cody #993, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1900s: Cody #1265, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1910s: Cody #1562, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1920s: Cody #1900, Colson #4347 — Cody higher
- 1930s: Cody #1591, Colson #3645 — Cody higher
- 1940s: Cody #1361, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1950s: Cody #878, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1960s: Cody #607, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1970s: Cody #261, Colson — — Cody higher
- 1980s: Cody #75, Colson #5827 — Cody higher
- 1990s: Cody #31, Colson #3591 — Cody higher
- 2000s: Cody #94, Colson #1537 — Cody higher
- 2010s: Cody #229, Colson #988 — Cody higher
- 2020s: Cody #304, Colson #333 — Cody higher
Cody stood higher in every recorded decade — 15 of 15.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Cody | Colson |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #888 | — |
| 1890s | #993 | — |
| 1900s | #1265 | — |
| 1910s | #1562 | — |
| 1920s | #1900 | #4347 |
| 1930s | #1591 | #3645 |
| 1940s | #1361 | — |
| 1950s | #878 | — |
| 1960s | #607 | — |
| 1970s | #261 | — |
| 1980s | #75 | #5827 |
| 1990s | #31 | #3591 |
| 2000s | #94 | #1537 |
| 2010s | #229 | #988 |
| 2020s | #304 | #333 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Cody
- Scotland#70
Colson
Not charting outside the US.
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Cody
Either "descendant of the helpful one" or "son of Óda"
Cody anglicizes two different Irish surnames. Ó Cuidighthigh comes from cuidightheach, a word for a helper or supporter. Mac Óda means son of Óda, an Irish form of the Norman name Odo. Both lines produced families spelled Cody in English, and there is no way to sort one household from the other after four centuries of anglicization.
Óda → Mac Óda / Ó Cuidighthigh → Cody (Irish surname) → Cody (given name)
How it traveled
The name is Irish before it is anything else — a surname from Kilkenny and the southeast, written Ó Cuidighthigh or Mac Óda in the Irish and flattened to Cody by English-speaking clerks. Irish emigration carried it into the United States through the nineteenth century, where it stayed a surname first: William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody, showman and army scout, gave the name to the Wyoming town he helped found.
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
Cody
KOH-dee
Stress on the first syllable. Pronounced the same way in American, British and Irish English, and almost never misread.
- Code — The usual informal clip among friends and teammates; rarely written down.
- Codes — Casual, mostly spoken, common in families and among schoolmates.
- C.J. — Used when a middle initial is available; functions as an alternative everyday name rather than a shortening.
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 Cody if you want…
- a name holding steadyCody is holding its place on the charts
- a name that charts abroad tooCody is on the national lists of Scotland
Choose Colson if you want…
- a name on the way upup 41 places on the charts in five years
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
Cody
Strengths
- Two syllables, phonetic spelling, no silent letters — a child can write it early and adults get it right on first hearing.
- Has been on American birth records since the nineteenth century, so it reads as familiar rather than newly coined.
- Travels well in English-speaking countries; it also charts in Scotland.
To consider
- Kody, Codie and Coty are all in real use, so expect to spell it aloud now and then — though the plain Cody spelling is the one most people default to.
- The name is strongly linked to the American West and to Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West shows. That association is friendly enough, but it is there.
- Most people carrying this name today are adults rather than children, so it may register to some ears as a grown-up's name — which also means a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
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 Cody 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 Cody 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.
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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 Cody and Colson — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Cody or Colson — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Cody or Colson?
- Colson, in 2025: Colson ranked #310 with 1,099 babies; Cody ranked #318 with 1,076 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Cody or Colson?
- Colson. Over the last five years Cody moved down 21 places; Colson moved up 41 places.
- Which is the older name, Cody or Colson?
- Cody entered the US charts in 1884; Colson entered the US charts in 1924. On the American record, Cody is the older name.
- How many people are named Cody and Colson?
- About 282,000 people named Cody 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 Codys or Colsons in the classroom?
- Cody 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; international figures from national statistics agencies. 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 Cody, Colson and the rest of your shortlist with your last name in one printable report.
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