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Colby vs Colyn

American parents have registered 58,155 Colbys since 1880, against 711 Colyns. Colby is still ahead, with 515 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Colby Colyn

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 1945, when Colby had 15 and Colyn had 5.

Side by side

  Colby Colyn
Total US births 58,155711
Most in one year 3,97944
Babies in 2025 515under 5
Estimated living today 56,000690
Median age today 2423
Peak year 20012001
Best rank 99th boys2,277th boys
Rank in 2025 615thunranked
First recorded 18881945
Girls / boys 4,184 / 53,97110 / 701

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.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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