Colden
Masculine · “cold valley”
Colden is an English place name meaning the cold valley, and the Old English word for a valley behind it is denu — not the same word as a modern den.
How old is the name Colden?
Colden first appears in US birth records in 1944 — 81 years ago. The typical Colden alive today was born around 2012, making them about 13 years old. About 1,000 people named Colden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Colden most popular?
Colden peaked in 2016, reaching #2335 nationally. Today it ranks #4249, 1,914 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From cald denu to Colden
The story of Colden
Colden is a place in West Yorkshire and another in Northumberland, and both are exactly what the name says — cold valleys, which in the Pennines is not an idle description. The surname followed. Cadwallader Colden was a colonial New York official and botanist whose daughter Jane was the first woman botanist in America. Its use as a given name is recent and small.
Meaning
cold valley
From Old English cald, cold, and denu, a valley; denu names a long narrow valley and closes hundreds of English place names, and it is a separate word from the den an animal lives in.
How the name formed
- cald denu
- Colden
Related forms: Coldene · Caldon
Pronouncing Colden
KOHL-den
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Colden
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
- 1944
- Most boys named
- 201656 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2335reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- +60.0%24 in 2025, from 15
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.
Colden in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Coldene in English — spelling variant
- Caldon in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, Pennsylvania, Texas.
Coldens among us
people named Colden are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 71,170 born in 2025 was named Colden
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Colden
- #4249
- Colden on the 2025 chart
- #897
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Colden went to 24 boys in 2025, but Kolden is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 31, which makes it the 897th most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,352 places above the chart.
- Colden24
- Kolden7
About 1 boy in 55,099 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 71,170 for Colden 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 Theordore test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Colden's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Theordore climbed just as high around 1920, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Theordore's path sketches the road Colden is walking now.
Colden 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
Colden beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Colden in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled place-name meaning that is completely transparent.
- Cole is a complete short form in current use.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- The meaning is a cold valley, which some find unwelcoming.
- Colden, Colton and Golden are all close in an American ear.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
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What they receive
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Colden
Masculine · #4249 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Coldens are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Colden are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Colden?
- Colden is the most-used spelling in US records — 24 of the 31 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kolden.
- How popular is the name Colden in 2025?
- Colden ranks #4249 among US boy names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Colden?
- About 1 in every 71,170 US boys born in 2025 was named Colden — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Colden with classmates?
- Colden will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Colden
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Guadalupe#4249 · Denny#4249 · Hughes#4249 · Erling#4249 · Rodrick#4249 · Elric#4249 · Ron#4249 · Wright#4249
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Colden? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Colden and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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