Collyn
Masculine · “French Colin”
Collyn is given to both — 827 boys and 261 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
The -lyn ending is female in American naming. Ashlyn, Katelyn, Brooklyn, Jocelyn: it has been marking girls' names for eighty years. Putting it on Colin produces a name that sounds male and reads female, and the ending wins on paper every time, because the eye reaches the end of the word after the beginning.
How old is the name Collyn?
Collyn first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Collyn alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 800 people named Collyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Collyn most popular?
Collyn peaked in 1999, reaching #2199 nationally. Today it ranks #8243, 6,044 places below that high. See the whole 1999 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nicolas to Collyn
The story of Collyn
Endings carry sex more strongly than any other part of a name, and they carry it in writing more strongly than in speech. An American reader meeting an unfamiliar written name assigns a sex almost entirely from its last two or three letters: -a, -ie, -lyn and -elle read female; -on, -er, -us and a final consonant cluster read male. That is why respelling the ending is the most consequential change anyone can make to a name and why it is done deliberately in both directions. Collyn is a case of an ending overriding a stem. The name is completely familiar as a man's name in Britain and Ireland, the pronunciation is unchanged, and the written form nonetheless pulls the other way. Families who choose it are usually aware of this; the ones who are not find out at the first roll call.
Meaningscholars disagree
French Colin, a diminutive of Nicolas
Colin has two sources that merged in English. One is the Old French Colin, a diminutive of Nicolas, from Greek nike, victory, and laos, people. The other is the Scottish Gaelic Cailean, usually read as a whelp or young hound. Both were current in Britain and the modern name descends from either or both. Collyn is an American respelling with a doubled l and the -lyn ending. It peaks in 1999.
How the name formed
- Nicolas
- Colin
- Collyn
Related forms: Colin · Cailean · Colin
Pronouncing Collyn
COL-in
Two syllables, stress on the first, short o. British English says COL-in; American speakers often say COH-lin with a long first vowel, and both are current. The doubled l blocks the long reading, which the single l permits.
Nicknames for Collyn
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
- 1986
- Most boys named
- 200952 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2199reached in 1999
- Change vs 2023
- +12.5%9 in 2025, from 8
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.
Collyn in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Colin in English — spelling variant
- Cailean in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Colin in French — same name
Collyns among us
people named Collyn are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 189,786 born in 2025 was named Collyn
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Collyn
- #8243
- Collyn on the 2025 chart
- #225
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Collyn went to 9 boys in 2025, but Colin, Collin and Kollin 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 — 8,018 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 1,049 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 189,786 for Collyn 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 Nathanel test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Collyn's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nathanel climbed just as high around 1929, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nathanel's path sketches the road Collyn is walking now.
Collyn 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
Collyn beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Collyn in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The doubled l fixes the first vowel as short.
- Col works as a short form.
- The name has two genuine and documented sources.
- The -lyn ending reads as female in American writing.
- Colin is the standard spelling by a wide margin.
- Two vowel readings of the first syllable circulate.
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Collyn
Masculine · #8243 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Collyns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Collyn are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Collyn?
- Collyn is one of 5 recorded spellings. Colin is the more common one — 950 births in 2025 against 9 for Collyn.
- How popular is the name Collyn in 2025?
- Collyn ranks #8243 among US boy names in 2025, with 9 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Collyn?
- About 1 in every 189,786 US boys born in 2025 was named Collyn — 9 in all.
- Will my child share the name Collyn with classmates?
- Collyn will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Collyn
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Danial#8243 · Ogden#8243 · Aaren#8243 · Trinity#8243 · Kourtney#8243 · Maury#8243 · Lindon#8243 · Elbert#8243
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Collyn? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Collyn and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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