Colin
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from the personal name Colin, ‘little Coll’, a reduced form of Nicholas; also from French Colin, a pet form of Nicolas
Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/koʊlɪn/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Colin is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country. In the United Kingdom it is the 90th most common given name.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 627(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 945
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 1.1K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 579 (measured from records)
- 1 in 579 (inferred from the name graph)
123,025 people, 2020
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Guyana
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from the personal name Colin, ‘little Coll’, a reduced form of Nicholas; also from French Colin, a pet form of Nicolas.
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested across 10 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Colin counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | #622 | 123,025 | 1 in 2.7K | 123K | Colin | 579 |
| GB United Kingdom | #90 | ≈100,000 est. | ≈1 in 627 | 4 | Colin | 365 |
| ZA South Africa | #208 | ≈27,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.1K | — | Colin | 134 |
| AU Australia | #169 | ≈27,000 est. | ≈1 in 945 | 81 | Colin | 281 |
| CA Canada | #319 | ≈17,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.3K | 4 | Colin | 302 |
| NZ New Zealand | #102 | ≈4,600 est. | ≈1 in 1.1K | 12 | Colin | 164 |
| IE Ireland | #146 | ≈3,700 est. | ≈1 in 1.4K | 17 | Colin | 143 |
| GY Guyana | — | 1,296 | 1 in 579 | 1.3K | — | 11 |
123,025 people counted by Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex, 2020. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NISRA — Baby names Northern Ireland full list (1997–present); NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present); Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender; DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present); Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025. Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Colin is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, 'Pup' or 'cub'; Irish variant Coilin, later latinised as Caniculus and Catulus.
as a nameIrish first names
In French, French diminutive of Nicolas, from Greek Nikolaos 'victory of the people'.
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, French diminutive of Nicolas; Greek nikē « victory » + laos « people ».
as a nameLe grand guide des prénoms (Enfant - Education)
In French, French diminutive of Nicolas; 'victory of the people'.
as a nameDictionnaire généalogique des prénoms
Diminutive form of the medieval name Col(le), a short form of pNicholas. In Scotland it has been used as an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name Cailean, particularly favoured among the Campbells and the MacKenzies. Cailean relates to St Columba (see Calum) as Crisdean does to Christ and Moirean to Mary.
as a nameA concise dictionary of first names
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Richard Dawsonb. 1932GBnot in their usual nameBritish actor (1932–2012)
- Colin Powellb. 1937USAmerican general and diplomat (1937–2021)
- Colin Firthb. 1960GBEnglish actor and producer
- Colin Salmonb. 1962GBBritish actor (b. 1962)
- Colin Jacksonb. 1967GBWelsh athlete and sports commentator
- Colin McRaeb. 1968GBBritish racing driver (1958-2007)
- Colin Farrellb. 1976IEIrish actor (born 1976)
- Colin Hanksb. 1977USAmerican actor (born 1977)
- Jermain Defoeb. 1982GBnot in their usual nameEnglish association football player (born 1982)
- Colin Kazim-Richardsb. 1986GBTurkish-British footballer and manager (born 1986)
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 111 sources across 52 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 123K | #460 |
| GY Guyana | Guyana — Official List of Electors July 2025 | 2025 | 1.3K | #28 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 950 | — |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 326 | #460 |
| CA Canada | Statistics Canada — First names at birth by sex at birth (Table 17-10-0147-01) | 2024 | 108 | — |
| AU Australia | NSW BDM — Popular baby names (1952–present) | 1983 | 81 | #90 |
| AU Australia | QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present) | 1987 | 38 | — |
| IE Ireland | CSO — Irish Babies Names (1998–present) | 2017 | 17 | #272 |
| CA Canada | Alberta Open Government — Frequency and Ranking of Baby Names by Year and Gender | 2024 | 4 | #922 |
Reference works 7
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Colin mean, and where does it come from?
- from the personal name Colin, ‘little Coll’, a reduced form of Nicholas; also from French Colin, a pet form of Nicolas. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- In which country does Colin have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 123 thousand people named Colin, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled colin.
- Where is Colin most common?
- Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Colin is densest in Guyana — about 1 in 579 people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.
- How do you pronounce Colin?
- A machine transcription gives /koʊlɪn/ (IPA) for English.
- Is Colin a male or female name?
- Colin is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- What are other forms of the name Colin?
- In the etymology graph, Collin, Callum and Calum are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Nick and Nicky.
- How common is the name Colin?
- In the United States, the national register counted 123,025 people named Colin in 2020, about 1 in 2.7 thousand residents.
- How common is Colin compared with other names?
- In the United States, Colin is the 622nd most common given name of 2,815,431 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Colin?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/colinThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Colin” — the 622nd most common given name in United States. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.