Kolin
Masculine · “Victory of the people”
Kolin is Colin with a K, and Colin is already two names pretending to be one: a medieval French pet form of Nicholas, and the Scottish Cailean. The K spelling is American and belongs to the 1990s, when initial K was doing a great deal of work in the birth records.
How old is the name Kolin?
Kolin first appears in US birth records in 1955 — 70 years ago. The typical Kolin alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 1,900 people named Kolin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Kolin most popular?
Kolin peaked in 1997, reaching #1571 nationally. Today it ranks #5208, 3,637 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From Nicolas to Kolin
The story of Kolin
Colin was ordinary in medieval England as a Nicholas pet form and was thoroughly out of fashion by the eighteenth century before returning in Britain in the twentieth. The Scottish Cailean ran on a separate track, anglicized as Colin, and gave the Campbell chiefs their patronymic Mac Cailein Mòr. American use of Colin climbed through the 1980s and 1990s, helped by Colin Powell's public prominence. Kolin belongs to that climb's tail: it appears in quantity only in the 1990s, alongside Kollin, Kolton and Kayden, in the years when families reaching for a familiar name with an unfamiliar look most often did it by changing a C to a K.
Meaningscholars disagree
Victory of the people, if from Nicholas
Two sources feed Colin and neither can be assigned to a given bearer. Old French Colin is a diminutive of Col, itself short for Nicolas, from Greek nikē, victory, and laos, people. Scottish Gaelic Cailean is a separate word, usually read as whelp or young pup and long associated with the Campbells. The K of Kolin is an American respelling and adds nothing to either.
How the name formed
- Nicolas
- Col
- Colin
- Kolin
Related forms: Cailean · Colin · Colin
Pronouncing Kolin
KOL-in
Two syllables, stress on the first, with a short o in American speech. British English often says COL-in with a fuller o, and the Irish saying puts it closer to CAWL-in.
Nicknames for Kolin
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
- 1955
- Most boys named
- 200379 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1571reached in 1997
- Change vs 2024
- +12.5%18 in 2025, from 16
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.
Kolin in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Cailean in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Colin in French — same name
- Colin in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, Louisiana, Texas.
Kolins among us
people named Kolin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 94,893 born in 2025 was named Kolin
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Kolin
- #5208
- Kolin on the 2025 chart
- #225
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Kolin went to 18 boys in 2025, but Colin, Collin and Kollin and the rest below are the same name said out loud. Together the 5 spellings went to 1,628, which makes it the 225th most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,983 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 1,049 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,893 for Kolin 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 Jarom test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Kolin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jarom climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jarom's path sketches the road Kolin is walking now.
Kolin 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
Kolin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Kolin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It sounds exactly like a familiar name while looking distinct on paper.
- Kol works as a modern short form.
- Nobody has to be taught how to say it.
- Colin is the standard spelling and will be written instead, every time.
- The K adds no history and reads as a 1990s marker.
- Colin, Collin, Kollin and Kolin are four spellings of one sound.
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What they receive
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Kolin
Masculine · #5208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Kolins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,900 people named Kolin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Kolin?
- Kolin is one of 5 recorded spellings. Colin is the more common one — 950 births in 2025 against 18 for Kolin.
- How popular is the name Kolin in 2025?
- Kolin ranks #5208 among US boy names in 2025, with 18 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Kolin?
- About 1 in every 94,893 US boys born in 2025 was named Kolin — 18 in all.
- Will my child share the name Kolin with classmates?
- Kolin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Kolin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rodger#5208 · Eusebio#5208 · Boy#5208 · Randal#5208 · Gable#5208 · Jessy#5208 · Kelby#5208 · Jens#5208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Kolin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Kolin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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