Colby
Colby is given to both girls and boys: 60 girls and 455 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,828 among girls’ names and #615 among boys’, #1,147 among all names counting both); 58,155 Americans have been recorded with it since 1888 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 56,100 Americans named Colby and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 25 years old and half are between 19 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Colby by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Colby mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Colby is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “charcoal” (kol) and “settlement” (býr).
From either the Old Norse personal name Koli or kol (“charcoal”) + býr (“settlement”).
/ˈkoʊl.bi/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Colby?
#615 among boys’ names, 2025
Colby fell from #457 in 2015 to #615 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.35 to 0.27 per 1,000.
3,979 babies in 2001, the peak
Colby peaked in 2001, when 3,979 babies were given it (3,859 boys, #99 among boys’ names). The 515 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 13% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 455 | #615 | 0.27 |
| 2024 | 490 | #583 | 0.28 |
| 2023 | 467 | #607 | 0.27 |
| 2022 | 469 | #601 | 0.27 |
| 2021 | 420 | #651 | 0.24 |
| 2020 | 439 | #618 | 0.25 |
| 2019 | 447 | #612 | 0.25 |
| 2018 | 459 | #597 | 0.25 |
| 2017 | 465 | #584 | 0.25 |
| 2016 | 558 | #529 | 0.29 |
Every recorded year (111)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 665 | #457 | 0.35 |
| 2014 | 717 | #427 | 0.37 |
| 2013 | 746 | #400 | 0.39 |
| 2012 | 909 | #341 | 0.48 |
| 2011 | 1,026 | #314 | 0.54 |
| 2010 | 1,207 | #280 | 0.63 |
| 2009 | 1,152 | #285 | 0.58 |
| 2008 | 1,256 | #273 | 0.62 |
| 2007 | 1,221 | #283 | 0.59 |
| 2006 | 1,272 | #272 | 0.62 |
| 2005 | 1,603 | #220 | 0.80 |
| 2004 | 2,066 | #185 | 1.0 |
| 2003 | 2,170 | #181 | 1.1 |
| 2002 | 3,118 | #125 | 1.6 |
| 2001 | 3,859 | #99 | 2.0 |
| 2000 | 1,465 | #234 | 0.75 |
| 1999 | 1,507 | #224 | 0.78 |
| 1998 | 1,456 | #220 | 0.76 |
| 1997 | 1,357 | #229 | 0.72 |
| 1996 | 1,344 | #225 | 0.71 |
| 1995 | 1,411 | #209 | 0.74 |
| 1994 | 1,449 | #200 | 0.75 |
| 1993 | 1,519 | #200 | 0.77 |
| 1992 | 1,574 | #197 | 0.79 |
| 1991 | 1,515 | #202 | 0.75 |
| 1990 | 1,129 | #245 | 0.55 |
| 1989 | 1,032 | #250 | 0.52 |
| 1988 | 922 | #255 | 0.48 |
| 1987 | 870 | #257 | 0.47 |
| 1986 | 891 | #253 | 0.48 |
| 1985 | 715 | #286 | 0.39 |
| 1984 | 759 | #276 | 0.42 |
| 1983 | 656 | #300 | 0.37 |
| 1982 | 494 | #360 | 0.27 |
| 1981 | 242 | #539 | 0.14 |
| 1980 | 262 | #532 | 0.15 |
| 1979 | 298 | #478 | 0.17 |
| 1978 | 289 | #479 | 0.18 |
| 1977 | 298 | #467 | 0.18 |
| 1976 | 320 | #432 | 0.20 |
| 1975 | 350 | #413 | 0.22 |
| 1974 | 330 | #436 | 0.21 |
| 1973 | 309 | #445 | 0.20 |
| 1972 | 209 | #551 | 0.13 |
| 1971 | 209 | #560 | 0.12 |
| 1970 | 142 | #696 | 0.08 |
| 1969 | 83 | #843 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 74 | #845 | 0.04 |
| 1967 | 42 | #1,152 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 38 | #1,218 | 0.02 |
| 1965 | 32 | #1,361 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 29 | #1,464 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 33 | #1,355 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 26 | #1,549 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 41 | #1,237 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 32 | #1,407 | 0.02 |
| 1959 | 29 | #1,468 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 22 | #1,690 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 31 | #1,412 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 28 | #1,485 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 25 | #1,545 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 19 | #1,772 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 17 | #1,909 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 26 | #1,488 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 14 | #2,067 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 14 | #2,040 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 24 | #1,514 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 25 | #1,464 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 17 | #1,862 | 0.01 |
| 1946 | 8 | #2,739 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 15 | #1,790 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 16 | #1,752 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 10 | #2,434 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 9 | #2,559 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 7 | #2,920 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 6 | #3,193 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 9 | #2,486 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 10 | #2,358 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 7 | #2,959 | 0.01 |
| 1936 | 7 | #2,919 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 10 | #2,418 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 6 | #3,354 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 6 | #3,337 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 5 | #3,871 | under 0.01 |
| 1931 | 5 | #3,870 | under 0.01 |
| 1930 | 8 | #3,068 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,067 | under 0.01 |
| 1928 | 9 | #2,887 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 10 | #2,733 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 8 | #3,184 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 8 | #3,195 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 9 | #3,066 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 7 | #3,525 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 8 | #3,304 | 0.01 |
| 1921 | 13 | #2,404 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 13 | #2,356 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,165 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,436 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 9 | #2,776 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 8 | #2,967 | 0.01 |
| 1888 | 5 | #1,066 | 0.04 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Colby a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 58,155 Americans recorded as Colby, 7% are girls and 93% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Colby: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Colby, and how old are they?
56,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 58,155 Americans ever recorded as Colby. The median Colby alive today is 25 years old; half are between 19 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 49,553 people named Colby (3,599 women and girls, 45,954 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 53,710 born in the U.S. The Census count is 8% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 34 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 381 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 3,290 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 17,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 27,500 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 7,370 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Colby born?
The states with the most babies named Colby are California, Texas and Pennsylvania, with 20% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 31 | #885 | 0.5× |
| Texas | 29 | #881 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 26 | #402 | 0.9× |
| North Carolina | 22 | #476 | 1.4× |
| Florida | 18 | #817 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 18 | #439 | 1.0× |
| Georgia | 17 | #597 | 1.1× |
| Missouri | 16 | #398 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 16 | #602 | 0.3× |
| Indiana | 15 | #456 | 0.4× |
Where Colby is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Colby is most over-represented in Maine: since 1910 it was given 3.8 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Colby with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 7 names spelled alike, given to 74,208 babies since 1880, Colby is the most given (78% of them). In 2025 it was given to 515 of their 817 babies (63%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Colby
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Colby and names like it
- Compare Colby and KolbyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sColby peaked in 2001.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Colby since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Colby: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Colby.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Colby alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.