Humanverse

Colleen vs Collene

American parents have registered 163,084 Colleens since 1880, against 1,009 Collenes. Colleen is still ahead, with 60 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Colleen against Collene, 1880 to 2025 0 1.3k 2.5k 3.8k 5k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Colleen 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

Colleen has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1901 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1938, when Colleen had 697 and Collene had 24.

Side by side

  Colleen Collene
Total US births 163,0841,009
Most in one year 4,56033
Babies in 2025 60under 5
Estimated living today 133,000730
Median age today 5860
Peak year 19641958
Best rank 94th girls1,908th girls
Rank in 2025 2,822ndunranked
First recorded 19011922
Girls / boys 162,754 / 3301,009 / 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 Colleens are over 58. That is 2 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: Colleen and Collene.