Colbert
Masculine · “Bright”
Colbert is a French surname whose most famous bearer spent twenty years trying to run an entire national economy from a desk, and largely succeeded.
How old is the name Colbert?
Colbert first appears in US birth records in 1886 — 139 years ago. The typical Colbert alive today was born around 1947, making them about 78 years old. About 400 people named Colbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Colbert most popular?
Colbert peaked in 1886, reaching #959 nationally. See the whole 1886 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert served Louis XIV as controller-general and set about organizing France the way an engineer organizes a machine: standardizing manufactures, founding companies, building a navy, writing regulations for the length and weave of cloth, planting forests for future masts, and taxing on a system rather than by improvisation. The doctrine that a state should actively manage trade to accumulate wealth is named after him. He also left the tax system he inherited largely intact for those best able to avoid it, which is part of why the arrangement he built lasted a century and then came apart very suddenly.
Meaningscholars disagree
Bright, famous
The surname is Germanic in origin, built on elements about coolness or boldness and about brightness, and the first element is argued over. It reached France with the Frankish naming stock and became a family name there.
Pronouncing Colbert
KOL-bert
Two syllables, stress at the front in American use. French says kol-BAIR, with the final t silent.
Nicknames for Colbert
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
- 1886
- Most boys named
- 193119 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #959reached in 1886
- Change vs 2005
- −25.0%6 in 2012, from 8
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.
Colbert in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Colbert in French — same name
Colberts among us
people named Colbert are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Colbert sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is a real surname with documented history rather than an invention.
- It shortens two ways and both short forms are established names.
- It is read correctly on sight.
- The French and American pronunciations differ in two places.
- For many Americans the name belongs to a television host.
- It reads as a surname, which is the usual trade.
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Colbert
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Colberts are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 400 people named Colbert are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Colbert in 2025?
- Colbert is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Colbert with classmates?
- Colbert will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Colbert? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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