Kole vs Kolson
American parents have registered 9,855 Koles since 1880, against 2,084 Kolsons. But in 2025 it was Kolson that was commoner, 269 babies to 165.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Kole Kolson
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 53 years in which either name was published, Kole for 49 years and Kolson for 4 years. The lead changed hands once.
Side by side
| Kole | Kolson | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 9,855 | 2,084 |
| Most in one year | 433 | 317 |
| Babies in 2025 | 165 | 269 |
| Estimated living today | 9,700 | 2,100 |
| Median age today | 16 | 3 |
| Peak year | 2009 | 2024 |
| Best rank | 597th boys | 793rd boys |
| Rank in 2025 | 1,244th | 883rd |
| First recorded | 1969 | 2002 |
| Girls / boys | 70 / 9,785 | 0 / 2,084 |
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 Koles alive today are over 16; half the Kolsons are over 3. That is 13 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Kole Utah (3.7×), Idaho (2.5×), Iowa (2.2×)
- Kolson Kentucky (4.5×), Indiana (3.3×), West Virginia (3.0×)
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 | Kole | Kolson |
|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 441 | 4 |
| Scotland | 136 | 3 |
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: Kole and Kolson.