Humanverse

Colin vs Collene

American parents have registered 134,151 Colins since 1880, against 1,009 Collenes. Colin is still ahead, with 950 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Colin against Collene, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Colin Collene

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

Colin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1938, when Colin had 55 and Collene had 24.

Side by side

  Colin Collene
Total US births 134,1511,009
Most in one year 5,14733
Babies in 2025 950under 5
Estimated living today 127,000730
Median age today 2460
Peak year 20041958
Best rank 85th boys1,908th girls
Rank in 2025 343rdunranked
First recorded 18801922
Girls / boys 445 / 133,7061,009 / 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 Collenes alive today are over 60; half the Colins are over 24. That is 36 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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