Humanverse

Collen vs Collin

American parents have registered 81,962 Collins since 1880, against 1,173 Collens. Collin is still ahead, with 619 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Collen Collin

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

Collin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1895 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1925, when Collen had 5 and Collin had 9.

Side by side

  Collen Collin
Total US births 1,17381,962
Most in one year 373,369
Babies in 2025 under 5619
Estimated living today 1,10079,000
Median age today 3123
Peak year 19971996
Best rank 2,449th boys115th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked493rd
First recorded 19181895
Girls / boys 512 / 661525 / 81,437

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 Collens alive today are over 31; half the Collins are over 23. That is 8 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: Collen and Collin.