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Colby vs Coltin

American parents have registered 58,155 Colbys since 1880, against 2,572 Coltins. Colby is still ahead, with 515 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Colby against Coltin, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Colby Coltin

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Colby has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1888 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2012, when Colby had 957 and Coltin had 126.

Side by side

  Colby Coltin
Total US births 58,1552,572
Most in one year 3,979126
Babies in 2025 51514
Estimated living today 56,0002,500
Median age today 2419
Peak year 20012012
Best rank 99th boys1,346th boys
Rank in 2025 615th6,143rd
First recorded 18881987
Girls / boys 4,184 / 53,9710 / 2,572

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Colbys alive today are over 24; half the Coltins are over 19. That is 5 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Colby and Coltin.