Calin
Masculine · “the guelder rose”
Calin is given to both — 1,166 boys and 224 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Calin is Romanian, and it is a flowering shrub. Calin names the guelder rose, and it is also the title of one of the best-loved poems in the Romanian language — Eminescu's Calin, a fairy-tale narrative of extraordinary music. Its American peak is 2011.
How old is the name Calin?
Calin first appears in US birth records in 1960 — 65 years ago. The typical Calin alive today was born around 2007, making them about 18 years old. About 1,100 people named Calin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Calin most popular?
Calin peaked in 2011, reaching #2077 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 4,066 places below that high. See the whole 2011 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From kalina to Calin
The story of Calin
Mihai Eminescu, Romania's national poet, published Calin in 1876 — a long poem based on folk material, in which a wandering hero enters an enchanted castle, loses and regains a princess, and the poem ends with a wedding of insects in a forest that is among the most famous passages in Romanian literature. That poem is why the name carries weight in Romania. American records show Calin in small numbers, and the 2011 peak is more likely to reflect the English Colin and Callen families than any Romanian arrival.
Meaningscholars disagree
the guelder rose
Romanian calin names the guelder rose or snowball tree, the same shrub that Slavic kalina names, and the word is a Slavic borrowing. As a given name Calin is standard in Romania. A separate reading connects it to Latin calidus, 'warm', which is less favored. There is also an unrelated English Calin, most likely a respelling of Colin or Callen, which is the likelier source for many American bearers.
How the name formed
- kalina
- Calin
- Calin
Related forms: Calin · Kalin · Colin
Pronouncing Calin
kuh-LEEN
Two syllables, stress at the end, in Romanian. English speakers usually say KAL-in with front stress, treating it as a spelling of Colin or Callen. Both are heard on American bearers.
Nicknames for Calin
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1960
- Most boys named
- 201164 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2077reached in 2011
- Change vs 2024
- −22.2%14 in 2025, from 18
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Calin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Calin in Romanian — same name
- Kalin in Bulgarian — related form
- Colin in English — related form
Calins among us
people named Calin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Calin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Calin
- #6143
- Calin on the 2025 chart
- #876
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Calin went to 14 boys in 2025, but Kalin, Calyn and Kallin and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 6 spellings went to 52, which makes it the 876th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,267 places above the chart.
- Calin14
- Kalin14
- Calyn7
- Kallin7
- Callyn5
- Khalin5
About 1 boy in 32,848 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 122,005 for Calin itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Sterlin test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Calin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Sterlin climbed just as high around 1947, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Sterlin's path sketches the road Calin is walking now.
Calin sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Calin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Calin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Cal and Lin are both usable short forms with independent lives.
- The Romanian reading gives it a concrete plant meaning and a famous poem.
- The spelling is short and phonetic in both languages.
- Two stress patterns circulate depending on the ancestry claimed.
- It is easily heard as Colin, Callen or Kalin.
- The American descent from the Romanian name cannot be shown.
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Calin
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Calins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Calin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Calin?
- Calin is the most-used spelling in US records — 14 of the 52 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kalin, Calyn, Kallin, Callyn and Khalin.
- How popular is the name Calin in 2025?
- Calin ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Calin?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Calin — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Calin with classmates?
- Calin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Calin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Calin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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