Colonel
Masculine · “Officer of a column”
Colonel is the widest gap between spelling and sound in the English language. There is no r in the written word and the spoken one is built around one; there are three syllables on the page and two in the mouth. The word took its spelling from one language and its pronunciation from another, and never reconciled them.
How old is the name Colonel?
Colonel was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Colonel alive today was born around 1926, making them about 99 years old. About 300 people named Colonel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Colonel most popular?
Colonel peaked in 1891, reaching #397 nationally. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From colonnello to Colonel
The story of Colonel
The word reached English twice. Italian had colonnello; French borrowed it and, by a normal sound change that swaps one liquid consonant for another, produced coronel; English borrowed the French word, spelled it as the French did, and said it as the French said it. Then, in the sixteenth century, scholars who had read the Italian corrected the spelling back to the original while nobody bothered to correct the pronunciation, which was already settled in every officer's mouth. The result is a word with a spelling from Italy and a sound from France, and generations of children who learn it from books and get it wrong. As a first name it belongs to a whole American habit: General, Major, Admiral and Captain all appear in the records as given names in the same decades.
Meaning
Officer of a column
The Italian colonnello was the officer commanding the column of soldiers at the head of a regiment, from colonna, a column. As a given name it is a rank rather than a description, one of a set of military titles that American families used directly in the nineteenth century. It says nothing about the child and everything about what the parents admired.
How the name formed
- colonnello
- coronel
- colonel
Related forms: Colonel · Coronel · Colonnello
Pronouncing Colonel
KUR-nul
Two syllables, said exactly like the word for the inside of a nut. There is no r in the spelling and no second o in the sound, which makes this the standard example in every book about English orthography.
Nicknames for Colonel
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 192135 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #397reached in 1891
- Change vs 1980
- 0.0%6 in 1987, from 6
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.
Colonel in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Colonel in French — same name
- Coronel in Spanish — related form
- Colonnello in Italian — related form
Colonels among us
people named Colonel 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
Colonel 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
- The word is universally known, so nobody ever asks what it means.
- It carries a clear and dignified image that needs no explaining.
- The written form is unambiguous, whatever can be said about how it is said.
- Anybody who meets the name in writing before hearing it will say all three syllables.
- It is a rank rather than a name, and it will be read as a title on every official form.
- The name is closely dated to the nineteenth century in American use.
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Colonel
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Colonels 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 Colonel are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Colonel in 2025?
- Colonel is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Colonel with classmates?
- Colonel 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 Colonel? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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