Humanverse

Cole vs Collyns

American parents have registered 154,646 Coles since 1880, against 774 Collynses. Cole is still ahead, with 2,009 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Cole Collyns

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

Cole has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1886 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2025, when Cole had 2,009 and Collyns had 100.

Side by side

  Cole Collyns
Total US births 154,646774
Most in one year 6,054100
Babies in 2025 2,009100
Estimated living today 151,000770
Median age today 204
Peak year 20022025
Best rank 69th boys1,927th girls
Rank in 2025 182nd1,927th
First recorded 18862010
Girls / boys 553 / 154,093774 / 0

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 Coles alive today are over 20; half the Collynses are over 4. That is 16 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 Collyns.