Collier
Masculine · “a charcoal burner or coal merchant”
Collier is given to both — 1,870 boys and 304 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Collier is a charcoal burner. The word meant charcoal long before it meant coal — mineral coal arrived later and borrowed the older word — so the trade behind this name is somebody working a slow fire in a wood.
How old is the name Collier?
Collier first appears in US birth records in 1898 — 127 years ago. The typical Collier alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 1,600 people named Collier are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Collier most popular?
Collier peaked in 1898, reaching #885 nationally. Today it ranks #3036, 2,151 places below that high. See the whole 1898 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From col to Collier
The story of Collier
Charcoal burning was a woodland trade — a stack of wood covered with turf and burned slowly for days, watched constantly so it smouldered rather than flamed — and it supplied the fuel for every smith and every furnace in England. The people who did it lived in the woods for weeks at a time and were regarded as slightly apart. The surname reached America early, and Collier became a given name there in the nineteenth century by the usual route of a family surname moved forward.
Meaning
a charcoal burner or coal merchant
Old English col named charcoal, and the word only came to mean the mineral in the later medieval period when it began to be dug in quantity. A collier was therefore first a charcoal maker and later a coal dealer or a coal miner. The surname was given for the older trade. The reading is documented and the shift in the word is well recorded.
How the name formed
- col
- collier
- Collier
Related forms: Charbonnier · Köhler
Pronouncing Collier
KOL-yer
Two syllables, stress on the first. KOL-ee-er with three syllables is also heard in careful speech, and both are ordinary.
Nicknames for Collier
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 boys named
- 201255 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #885reached in 1898
- Change vs 2023
- −27.3%40 in 2025, from 55
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.
Collier in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Charbonnier in French — related form
- Köhler in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Alabama, Texas, Georgia.
Colliers among us
people named Collier are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 42,702 born in 2025 was named Collier
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Collier 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 Collier is headed
Collier 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.
Collier beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Collier in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Cole is a ready short form and a very well-established name in its own right.
- A documented occupational surname with a genuinely interesting trade behind it.
- Two syllables and phonetic spelling, with nothing silent to explain.
- It is unmistakably a surname and will be read as one on forms.
- Collier, Colyer and Colliers all circulate, though the first is much the commonest.
- The coal association is the modern one and the charcoal one is invisible without explanation.
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What they receive
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Collier
Masculine · #3036 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Colliers are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,600 people named Collier are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Collier in 2025?
- Collier ranks #3036 among US boy names in 2025, with 40 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Collier?
- About 1 in every 42,702 US boys born in 2025 was named Collier — 40 in all.
- Will my child share the name Collier with classmates?
- Collier will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Collier
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Loren#3036 · Williams#3036 · Amadou#3036 · Kavion#3036 · Sheppard#3036 · Koi#3036 · Sailor#3036 · Claude#3036
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Collier? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Collier and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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