Colette vs Colin
American parents have registered 134,151 Colins since 1880, against 27,987 Colettes. But in 2025 it was Colette that was commoner, 962 babies to 950.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Colette Colin
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 142 years in which either name was published, Colin for 89 years and Colette for 53 years. The lead changed hands 17 times.
- 1880–1890 Colin ahead
- 1892–1914 Colette ahead, apart from 2 short spells
- 1915–1922 Colin ahead
- 1923–1941 Colette ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1942–1949 Colin ahead
- 1950–1964 Colette ahead
- 1968–2024 Colin ahead
8 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Colette | Colin | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 27,987 | 134,151 |
| Most in one year | 962 | 5,147 |
| Babies in 2025 | 962 | 950 |
| Estimated living today | 25,000 | 127,000 |
| Median age today | 35 | 24 |
| Peak year | 2025 | 2004 |
| Best rank | 316th girls | 85th boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 316th | 343rd |
| First recorded | 1892 | 1880 |
| Girls / boys | 27,987 / 0 | 445 / 133,706 |
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 Colettes alive today are over 35; half the Colins are over 24. That is 11 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Colette Utah (2.2×), Illinois (1.9×), Minnesota (1.8×)
- Colin New Hampshire (2.5×), Massachusetts (2.0×), Connecticut (2.0×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Both names abroad
Countries whose statistics office publishes both names, so the comparison can be made somewhere other than the United States.
| Country | Colette | Colin |
|---|---|---|
| France | 175,550 | 6,760 |
| Scotland | 776 | 8,758 |
| Ireland | 2,665 | 6,714 |
| Switzerland | 64 | 2,536 |
| Belgium | 668 | 1,310 |
| England and Wales | 595 | 1,329 |
Every spelling a country files separately is added together, over whatever years that country publishes — which is not the same range in any two of them, so read the columns against each other and not the rows.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Colette and Colin.