Columbia
Feminine · “The poetic name for America”
Columbia is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 647 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Columbia is the name the young United States gave itself in poetry — a goddess of liberty long before Uncle Sam existed. Phillis Wheatley put her in a poem to George Washington, an American captain named a ship after her, and the ship named a river.
How old is the name Columbia?
Columbia first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Columbia alive today was born around 1919, making them about 106 years old. Fewer than a hundred people named Columbia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
When was the name Columbia most popular?
Columbia peaked in 1882, reaching #813 nationally. See the whole 1882 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Columba to Columbia
The story of Columbia
Columbia was in use as a poetic name for British America by the middle of the eighteenth century, and after independence it became the new nation's figure in verse, songs and cartoons. In 1775 Phillis Wheatley sent George Washington a poem that cast the colonies as the goddess Columbia; he wrote back and invited her to call on him. In 1792 the captain Robert Gray took his ship Columbia Rediviva across the dangerous bar of a great western river and named the river after her. The same figure gave its name to the federal district, to the renamed King's College in New York, and to the song 'Hail, Columbia'.
Meaning
The poetic name for America, formed from Columbus
Columbia is a Latin-style feminine built on the name of Christopher Columbus, the way Britannia names Britain. Columbus's own surname, Colombo in Italian, means 'dove'.
How the name formed
- Columba
- Colombo
- Columbus
- Columbia
Related forms: Colombia · Columba · Colombina
Pronouncing Columbia
kuh-LUM-bee-uh
Said exactly like the river, the district and the university.
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
- 1882
- Most girls named
- 191633 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #813reached in 1882
- Change vs 2015
- −30.0%7 in 2024, from 10
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.
Columbia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Colombia in Spanish — related form
- Columba in Latin — related form
- Colombina in Italian — related form
Columbias among us
Fewer than a hundred people named Columbia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Columbia 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
- Instantly recognized: the river, the district, the university and the old national symbol all carry it.
- A genuine piece of American history, older than the Constitution.
- Spelled exactly the way everyone already spells it.
- For most people it is a place first — a river, a district, a university, and a South American country spelled with an o — so the child will often hear it treated as a place before a name.
- The record holds the spelling for a handful of boys, but it is overwhelmingly a girl's name, as the goddess behind it suggests; a boy called Columbia would be explaining it often.
- The name leads back to Columbus, an association many families now weigh carefully, and it is worth deciding in advance how you feel about it.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Columbia
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Columbias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. Fewer than a hundred people named Columbia are estimated to be alive in the US today — a true one-of-a-kind name.
- How popular is the name Columbia in 2025?
- Columbia is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Columbia with classmates?
- Columbia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Carol#2239 · Cynthia#1013 · Catherine#313 · Christine#1272 · Carolyn#1222 · Christina#770 · Charlotte#2 · Cheryl#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Columbia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Columbia and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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