Collie
Masculine
Collie is given to both — 1,172 boys and 359 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Nobody knows why a collie is called a collie. The dog has had the name in Scotland for at least three hundred years and there are four competing explanations, all plausible and none demonstrated; the American given name is a pet form of something else entirely and only shares the spelling.
How old is the name Collie?
Collie first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Collie alive today was born around 1931, making them about 94 years old. About 300 people named Collie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Collie most popular?
Collie peaked in 1890, reaching #667 nationally. See the whole 1890 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Collie
The explanations for the dog are worth laying out, because they show how hard a simple question can be. One says the word is from coal, the dogs being black or having black faces; a second connects it to colley, an old dialect word for a sheep with a black face, which would make it the sheep's dog rather than the sheep-dog; a third proposes the Gaelic word for a puppy or a whelp; and a fourth suggests a Norse word. All four are respectable, all four have been argued in print, and the earliest citations are too late and too casual to settle it. That is the ordinary condition of vocabulary: the words people use every day are exactly the ones nobody writes an explanation of.
Meaningnot established
Not established
As a given name it is a shortening, most likely of Colleen or of a surname built on Coll, itself the medieval English pet form of Nicholas. As the dog, the origin is genuinely unsettled. Neither line can be established for a particular family, and the two have nothing to do with each other.
Pronouncing Collie
KOL-ee
Two syllables with the stress at the front and a short first vowel, which the doubled l guarantees. The dog is said the same way, which is unavoidable and is the main practical fact about the name.
Nicknames for Collie
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 191535 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #667reached in 1890
- Change vs 1990
- +40.0%7 in 2001, from 5
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.
Collies among us
people named Collie 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
Collie 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
- Short, warm and easy for a small child to say and to write.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- Coll is a genuinely old English name sitting inside it.
- The dog association is universal in English and completely unavoidable.
- The record carries it for boys as well as girls, so it signals nothing on a form.
- It is strongly dated to the turn of the last century in American records.
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Collie
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Collies are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Collie are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Collie in 2025?
- Collie is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Collie with classmates?
- Collie 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 Collie? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Collie and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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