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Collen vs Colton

American parents have registered 152,174 Coltons since 1880, against 1,173 Collens. Colton is still ahead, with 3,426 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Collen Colton

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 98 years in which either name was published, Colton for 83 years and Collen for 15 years. The lead changed hands 20 times.

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

Side by side

  Collen Colton
Total US births 1,173152,174
Most in one year 376,496
Babies in 2025 under 53,426
Estimated living today 1,100150,000
Median age today 3114
Peak year 19972013
Best rank 2,449th boys65th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked103rd
First recorded 19181913
Girls / boys 512 / 661209 / 151,965

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 Coltons are over 14. That is 17 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 Colton.