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Colden vs Cole

American parents have registered 154,646 Coles since 1880, against 1,014 Coldens. Cole is still ahead, with 2,009 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Colden Cole

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 1944, when Colden had 6 and Cole had 12.

Side by side

  Colden Cole
Total US births 1,014154,646
Most in one year 566,054
Babies in 2025 242,009
Estimated living today 1,000151,000
Median age today 1320
Peak year 20162002
Best rank 2,335th boys69th boys
Rank in 2025 4,249th182nd
First recorded 19441886
Girls / boys 0 / 1,014553 / 154,093

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 Coldens are over 13. That is 7 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: Colden and Cole.