Colton
Masculine · Old English roots
Colton is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 151,965 boys against 209 girls since 1880.
Colton began as an English place name — several villages carry it, from Yorkshire to Staffordshire — and came to America the way most surname-names do, quietly, on a family line. It is one of those words that lands cleanly in the mouth: two even beats, a hard opening consonant, a soft finish. Everyone who hears it can spell it, and almost everyone who says it hears the short forms Colt and Cole waiting inside.
How old is the name Colton?
Colton first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Colton alive today was born around 2011, making them about 14 years old. About 150,000 people named Colton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Colton most popular?
Colton peaked in 2019, reaching #59 nationally. Today it ranks #103, 44 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Where it comes from
From Cola (Old English personal name) to Colton
The story of Colton
There is no single Colton. The name sits on the map of England in several counties — Norfolk, Staffordshire, Cumbria, Yorkshire — each village named for its own reason and each producing families who took the place as a surname. Those surnames crossed to North America with ordinary migration, and, like Parker and Weston before it, the family name eventually swung around to the front and became a first name. Its use as a given name is an American story, and a fairly recent one: it appeared on the national record early in the twentieth century and stayed thin for decades before rising in earnest.
Meaningscholars disagree
Old English place name: a settlement whose first element is disputed — most often read as 'Cola's farmstead'
The second element is not in doubt: Old English tūn, a farmstead or settlement. The first is. Place-name scholars read the various English Coltons differently — some from the personal name Cola, some from col, 'coal' or 'charcoal', and at least one from the River Cole. Different villages, genuinely different answers, all folded into one modern spelling.
How the name formed
- ColaOld English personal name
- Coletone / ColtunEnglish place name
- ColtonEnglish surname
- Coltongiven name
Pronouncing Colton
KOHL-tun
Stress on the first syllable. The second is a soft, unstressed 'tun', close to the ending of Weston or Payton — never 'tone'. There is one pronunciation and no real regional disagreement about it.
Nicknames for Colton
High
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 20146,405 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #59reached in 2019
- Change vs 2023
- −7.7%3,420 in 2025, from 3,707
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.
Colton in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Coltons among us
people named Colton are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 499 born in 2025 was named Colton
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Colton
- #103
- Colton on the 2025 chart
- #92
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Colton went to 3,420 boys in 2025, but Kolton is the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 3,917, which makes it the 92nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 11 places above the chart.
- Colton3,420
- Kolton489
and 1 rarer spelling.
About 1 boy in 436 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 499 for Colton 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 Carlos test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Colton's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Carlos climbed just as high around 1999, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Carlos's path sketches the road Colton is walking now.
Colton is coming down from a big peak (#59 in 2019). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Colton is headed
Colton should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Colton beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Colton in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds for an English-speaking reader; almost never needs to be repeated over the phone.
- Two ready-made short forms, Colt and Cole, both of which also work as full given names on paperwork.
- Shares its rhythm and -ton ending with a whole family of surname-names, so it sits easily beside them in a class list.
- A documented English place name and surname long before it was a first name, which gives it a paper trail rather than a coined origin.
- The spellings Kolton, Coltyn and Colten all circulate, so the occasional 'is that with a C or a K?' is likely even though your spelling is the standard one.
- Colt carries a strong American association with the revolver and with cowboy imagery. That mostly attaches to Colt on its own, but it is worth knowing before you lean on the nickname.
- It reads as contemporary rather than heirloom. Its use as a first name is recent enough that it has no long stretch of grandfathers behind it, which some parents like and some do not.
- It is stepping back from a high point, so it will feel familiar to people without being repeated across a classroom.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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Colton
Masculine · Old English roots · #103 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Coltons are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 150,000 people named Colton are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Colton?
- Colton is the most-used spelling in US records — 3,420 of the 3,917 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Kolton.
- How popular is the name Colton in 2025?
- Colton ranks #103 among US boy names in 2025, with 3,420 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Colton?
- About 1 in every 499 US boys born in 2025 was named Colton — 3,420 in all.
- Will my child share the name Colton with classmates?
- Colton will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Colton
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eli#104 · Parker#102 · Amir#105 · Adam#101 · Dominic#106 · Myles#100 · Vincent#107 · Ryan#99
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Colton? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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