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Colleen vs Colvin

American parents have registered 163,084 Colleens since 1880, against 1,040 Colvins. Colleen is still ahead, with 60 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Colleen Colvin

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 125 years in which either name was published, Colleen for 124 years and Colvin for 1 year. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Colleen Colvin
Total US births 163,0841,040
Most in one year 4,56026
Babies in 2025 605
Estimated living today 133,000690
Median age today 5822
Peak year 19642007
Best rank 94th girls3,893rd boys
Rank in 2025 2,822nd12,008th
First recorded 19011899
Girls / boys 162,754 / 3300 / 1,040

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 Colleens alive today are over 58; half the Colvins are over 22. That is 36 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 Colvin.