Humanverse

Cole vs Collis

American parents have registered 154,646 Coles since 1880, against 1,319 Collises. Cole is still ahead, with 2,009 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Cole against Collis, 1880 to 2025 0 2k 4k 6k 8k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Cole Collis

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

Of the 124 years in which either name was published, Cole for 96 years and Collis for 28 years. The lead changed hands 14 times.

6 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.

Side by side

  Cole Collis
Total US births 154,6461,319
Most in one year 6,05430
Babies in 2025 2,009under 5
Estimated living today 151,000600
Median age today 2058
Peak year 20021952
Best rank 69th boys1,378th boys
Rank in 2025 182ndunranked
First recorded 18861894
Girls / boys 553 / 154,09310 / 1,309

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 Collises alive today are over 58; half the Coles are over 20. That is 38 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: Cole and Collis.