Coulter
Masculine · “plow blade”
Coulter is a Scottish surname and also a piece of a plow: the coulter is the blade that cuts the soil ahead of the share. Both readings are documented and they are not the same word.
How old is the name Coulter?
Coulter first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Coulter alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 800 people named Coulter are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Coulter most popular?
Coulter peaked in 1988, reaching #2961 nationally. Today it ranks #3314, 353 places below that high. See the whole 1988 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From culter to Coulter
The story of Coulter
There is a village called Coulter in the Scottish borders, and families took its name in the ordinary way. Independently, English and Scots made surnames out of tools and trades, and the coulter of a plow was a specific and valuable piece of iron. Both lines produced the surname, which reached America with Scots-Irish emigration and is common in Pennsylvania and the upland South. Its move into given names is recent.
Meaningscholars disagree
plow blade, or from Coulter
The occupational reading takes the name from the coulter, the vertical iron blade of a plow, from Latin culter, a knife — a byname for the man who made or used them. The locational reading takes it from Coulter in Lanarkshire, whose name is Gaelic and separate.
How the name formed
- culter
- Coulter
Related forms: Colter · Coulter
Pronouncing Coulter
KOHL-ter
Two syllables, first stressed. Coulter and Colter are said identically.
Nicknames for Coulter
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
- 1979
- Most boys named
- 202439 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2961reached in 1988
- Change vs 2024
- −10.3%35 in 2025, from 39
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.
Coulter in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Colter in English — spelling variant
- Coulter in Scots — same name
Coulters among us
people named Coulter are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 48,802 born in 2025 was named Coulter
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Coulter
- #3314
- Coulter on the 2025 chart
- #882
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Coulter went to 35 boys in 2025, but Koulter is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 46, which makes it the 882nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,432 places above the chart.
- Coulter35
- Koulter11
About 1 boy in 37,132 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 48,802 for Coulter 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 Hawthorne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Coulter's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Hawthorne climbed just as high around 1943, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Hawthorne's path sketches the road Coulter is walking now.
Coulter 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 Coulter is headed
Coulter looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 29% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium 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.
Coulter beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Coulter in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two documented histories, one occupational and one Scottish, both real.
- Colt is a short form that is entirely current and works on a team sheet.
- Plain letters and an obvious pronunciation for any English speaker.
- Colter is the more common American spelling and will be written for him.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
- A well-known American political commentator carries the surname, which shapes some first reactions.
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Coulter
Masculine · #3314 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Coulters 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 Coulter are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Coulter?
- Coulter is the most-used spelling in US records — 35 of the 46 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Koulter.
- How popular is the name Coulter in 2025?
- Coulter ranks #3314 among US boy names in 2025, with 35 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Coulter?
- About 1 in every 48,802 US boys born in 2025 was named Coulter — 35 in all.
- Will my child share the name Coulter with classmates?
- Coulter will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Coulter
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rainier#3314 · Caio#3314 · Kaydon#3314 · Daksh#3314 · Kree#3314 · Calen#3314 · Karmello#3314 · Mathis#3314
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Coulter? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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