Colin
Masculine
Colin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 133,706 boys against 445 girls since 1880.
Colin arrives in English from two directions at once: as a medieval pet form of Nicholas, worn down through Colle, and as the English spelling of Scottish Gaelic Cailean, a name long carried in the Highlands. Two syllables, both light, with a first sound that lands cleanly and an ending that never needs explaining. It has been in continuous English and Scottish use since the Middle Ages, and it is still turning up in kindergartens.
How old is the name Colin?
Colin was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Colin alive today was born around 2000, making them about 25 years old. About 127,000 people named Colin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Colin most popular?
Colin peaked in 2004, reaching #85 nationally. Today it ranks #343, 258 places below that high. See the whole 2004 chart.
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Colin
The story of Colin
The English Colin grew out of Nicholas: medieval speakers clipped it to Colle and added the diminutive -in, and the same thing happened in French, where Colin became a common everyday name in the Middle Ages. Quite separately, Scottish Gaelic Cailean was long established in the Highlands, and English writers rendered it as Colin — which is why the name has been strongly Scottish for centuries while also being, technically, a nickname for Nicholas. Irish Coilín arrived at the same spelling by a third short route. By the nineteenth century the three lines were indistinguishable on paper, and Colin traveled to North America as one name with several ancestries.
Meaningscholars disagree
Either "victory of the people" (through Nicholas) or "whelp, young pup" (through Gaelic cailean)
Two separate names meet at this spelling. In England and France, Colin began as a diminutive of Nicholas — Colle plus the affectionate ending -in — so it inherits the Greek sense of Nikolaos, "victory of the people." In Scotland it is the anglicized form of Cailean, connected to Gaelic cailean, "whelp" or "young dog," an affectionate rather than insulting term in Gaelic naming. Both readings are serious and well documented; which one applies depends on which family line the name traveled down.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nicholas
- Colle
- Colin
Related forms: Cailean · Coilín · Colin · Collin · Nikolaos · Colijn
Pronouncing Colin
KOL-in
In American use the first syllable usually rhymes with "doll" — KAH-lin. British and Irish speakers most often say KOL-in as well, though KOH-lin, with a long o, is also widely heard and was the pronunciation used by some well-known bearers. Both are correct; it is worth deciding which one your family will use, since strangers will guess.
Nicknames for Colin
High
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20034,876 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #85reached in 2004
- Change vs 2022
- −18.8%950 in 2025, from 1,170
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.
Colin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cailean in Scottish Gaelic — same name
- Coilín in Irish — related form
- Colin in French — same name
- Collin in English — spelling variant
- Nikolaos in Greek — related form
- Colijn in Dutch — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Pennsylvania.
Colins among us
people named Colin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,798 born in 2025 was named Colin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Colin
- #343
- Colin on the 2025 chart
- #225
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Colin went to 950 boys in 2025, but Collin, Kollin and Kolin and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,628, which makes it the 225th most-given boys’ name of the year — 118 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 1,049 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 1,798 for Colin 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 Darrell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Colin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darrell climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darrell's path sketches the road Colin is walking now.
Colin is coming down from a big peak (#85 in 2004). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Colin is headed
Colin should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Colin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Colin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two syllables, one clear stress, and no letter anyone has to be told about — most people can spell it after hearing it once.
- Works unchanged in English and French, with close relatives in Gaelic and Irish, so it travels well.
- Established short forms in real use: Col and Cole, both centuries or decades old rather than invented.
- Familiar to every generation without being crowded — a child is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
- An unbroken record in English and Scottish use since the Middle Ages, which keeps it from sounding tied to any one decade.
- Colin and Collin both exist as accepted spellings, so expect to correct the double-l version regularly for life. Neither is wrong, which is exactly what makes the mix-up persistent.
- The pronunciation genuinely splits — KAH-lin and KOH-lin are both in use — so your child will hear their name said two ways and will need a habit of answering to both.
- If the Gaelic line matters to you, know that cailean means "whelp" or "young pup": warm in Gaelic naming tradition, but not the meaning most parents expect to find.
- It sits in the phase after a peak, familiar to adults and less common among small children — which some parents read as recently-used and others read as pleasantly uncrowded.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Colin
Masculine · #343 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Colins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 127,000 people named Colin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Colin?
- Colin is the most-used spelling in US records — 950 of the 1,628 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Collin, Kollin, Kolin and Collyn.
- How popular is the name Colin in 2025?
- Colin ranks #343 among US boy names in 2025, with 950 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Colin?
- About 1 in every 1,798 US boys born in 2025 was named Colin — 950 in all.
- Will my child share the name Colin with classmates?
- Colin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Colin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jax#342 · Wade#344 · Wells#345 · Cairo#341 · Russell#345 · Sterling#345 · Marshall#340 · Brian#339
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Colin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Colin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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