Collette
Feminine · “victory of the people”
Collette is a French diminutive of Nicole — victory of the people — and Colette the novelist won a state funeral and was refused a religious one.
How old is the name Collette?
Collette first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Collette alive today was born around 1971, making them about 54 years old. About 6,500 people named Collette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Collette most popular?
Collette peaked in 1966, reaching #713 nationally. Today it ranks #2239, 1,526 places below that high. See the whole 1966 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From nike laos to Collette
The story of Collette
Colette wrote Gigi and the Claudine novels, was the first Frenchwoman given a state funeral, and was refused Catholic rites because of her divorces. Saint Colette of Corbie reformed the Poor Clares in the fifteenth century. Collette is the doubled-l spelling and appears in American records in current use.
Meaning
victory of the people
From the French Colette, a diminutive of Nicole, from the Greek nike, 'victory', and laos, 'people'. The doubled l is an English spelling variation. The Greek elements are ordinary and the compound transparent.
How the name formed
- nike laos
- Nicole
- Colette
- Collette
Related forms: Colette · Nicolette · Nicole
Pronouncing Collette
kuh-LET
Two syllables, stress on the second. French says ko-LET with a crisper first vowel.
Nicknames for Collette
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
- 1898
- Most girls named
- 1966189 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #713reached in 1966
- Change vs 2023
- +17.1%82 in 2025, from 70
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.
Collette in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Colette in French — spelling variant
- Nicolette in English — related form
- Nicole in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Collettes among us
people named Collette are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 19,601 born in 2025 was named Collette
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Collette
- #2239
- Collette on the 2025 chart
- #295
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Collette went to 82 girls in 2025, but Colette and Kolette are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 1,062, which makes it the 295th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,944 places above the chart.
- Colette962
- Collette82
- Kolette18
About 1 girl in 1,513 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 19,601 for Collette 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 Ines test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Collette's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ines climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ines's path sketches the road Collette is walking now.
Collette 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
Where Collette is headed
Collette should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Collette beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Collette in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- That the novelist got a state funeral and was refused a religious one is a first-rate fact.
- The victory-of-the-people meaning is transparent and strong.
- The end stress gives it a strong rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- Colette with one l is the standard French spelling.
- It is period-coded to the mid-twentieth century.
- It reads as a diminutive in French.
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What they receive
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Collette
Feminine · #2239 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Collettes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 6,500 people named Collette are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Collette?
- Collette is one of 3 recorded spellings. Colette is the more common one — 962 births in 2025 against 82 for Collette.
- How popular is the name Collette in 2025?
- Collette ranks #2239 among US girl names in 2025, with 82 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Collette?
- About 1 in every 19,601 US girls born in 2025 was named Collette — 82 in all.
- Will my child share the name Collette with classmates?
- Collette will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Collette
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jaelani#2239 · Mirabelle#2239 · Kelsie#2239 · Desire#2239 · Naiomi#2239 · Bracha#2239 · Jazmyn#2239 · Effie#2239
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Collette? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Collette and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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