Corbin
Masculine · “raven”
Corbin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 41,112 boys against 665 girls since 1880. See Corbin as a girl name
Corbin began as a byname for someone dark as a raven, and it has been on American records for well over a century — never crowding a classroom, never disappearing either. It sits in the same easy pattern as Austin and Colin: two beats, stress at the front, nothing to explain when you say it aloud.
How old is the name Corbin?
Corbin first appears in US birth records in 1891 — 134 years ago. The typical Corbin alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 40,000 people named Corbin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Corbin most popular?
Corbin peaked in 2014, reaching #203 nationally. Today it ranks #512, 309 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Corbin appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From corvus to Corbin
The story of Corbin
The word behind Corbin is Latin corvus, 'raven', which became corb in Old French and picked up the affectionate ending -in. Medieval England and France both used it as a byname for dark-haired men, and from there it hardened into an inherited surname carried by families on either side of the Channel. Arthurian romance gave the sound another life: the Grail castle appears as Corbin or Corbenic in the French prose cycles and in Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur. American parents, following the long habit of turning English surnames into first names, moved it to the front of the name in the nineteenth century, and it has stayed there ever since.
Meaning
raven, crow
From Old French corbin, a diminutive of corb 'raven', which comes from Latin corvus. As a medieval byname it pointed at dark hair or a dark complexion rather than at the bird itself.
How the name formed
- corvus
- corb
- corbin
- Corbin
Related forms: Corbyn · Corben · Corbin · Korbinian · Corbinianus
Pronouncing Corbin
KOR-bin
Stress on the first syllable. The second is a light 'bin', not 'bine'. English speakers get it right on first sight, and the spelling gives no trouble in French or German either.
Nicknames for Corbin
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
- 1891
- Most boys named
- 20111,713 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #203reached in 2014
- Change vs 2023
- −13.6%586 in 2025, from 678
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.
Corbin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Corbyn in English — spelling variant
- Corben in English — spelling variant
- Corbin in French — same name
- Korbinian in German (Bavarian) — related form
- Corbinianus in Latin — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, Florida.
Corbins among us
people named Corbin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,915 born in 2025 was named Corbin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Corbin
- #512
- Corbin on the 2025 chart
- #340
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Corbin went to 586 boys in 2025, but Korbin, Korbyn and Corbyn are the same name said out loud. Together the 4 spellings went to 928, which makes it the 340th most-given boys’ name of the year — 172 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 1,841 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,915 for Corbin 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 Buddy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Corbin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Buddy climbed just as high around 1935, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Buddy's path sketches the road Corbin is walking now.
Corbin 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 Corbin is headed
Corbin is easing off slowly — about 19% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Corbin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Corbin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads and says itself: one obvious pronunciation from the spelling, and one obvious spelling from the sound — apart from the Corbyn and Korbin variants.
- On US records for well over a century, so it carries none of the strangeness of a recent invention.
- Fits the established surname-as-first-name pattern alongside Colton, Camden and Weston, without being one of the crowded ones.
- Short forms already in use — Corb, Corby — so a nickname does not have to be manufactured.
- A documented meaning parents can state in three words, plus a place in Arthurian romance as the Grail castle Corbin.
- Corbyn, Korbin and Corben all circulate, so expect an occasional 'how do you spell that' even though the sound is unmistakable.
- Corbett, Colby and Corbin get mixed up by ear, especially over the phone or in a noisy room.
- The name has been stepping back from its high point, which means most people carrying it now are teenagers and young adults rather than babies — a slightly dated ring for a few years, then not.
- 'Raven' is a handsome meaning but a dark-toned one, and some family members will hear the bird before they hear the name.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Corbin
Masculine · #512 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Corbins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 40,000 people named Corbin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Corbin?
- Corbin is the most-used spelling in US records — 586 of the 928 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Korbin, Korbyn and Corbyn.
- How popular is the name Corbin in 2025?
- Corbin ranks #512 among US boy names in 2025, with 586 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Corbin?
- About 1 in every 2,915 US boys born in 2025 was named Corbin — 586 in all.
- Will my child share the name Corbin with classmates?
- Corbin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Corbin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alonzo#511 · Alexis#513 · Frank#513 · Leonidas#510 · Moses#515 · Marcos#516 · Johnathan#508 · Callen#516
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Corbin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Corbin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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