Colt
Colt was given to 1,188 boys in 2025, #285 among boys’ names; 27,880 Americans have been recorded with it since 1957 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 27,400 Americans named Colt and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Colt by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Colt mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Colt is “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
From colt, as a nickname or occupational name for someone who looked after horses and asses. The given name may also be short for Colton.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Colt?
#285 among boys’ names, 2025
Colt rose from #338 in 2015 to #285 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.53 to 0.70 per 1,000.
1,833 babies in 2019, the peak
Colt peaked in 2019, when 1,833 boys were given it, #210 among boys’ names. The 1,188 births of 2025 are 65% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,188 | #285 | 0.70 |
| 2024 | 1,227 | #277 | 0.71 |
| 2023 | 1,304 | #264 | 0.76 |
| 2022 | 1,462 | #240 | 0.84 |
| 2021 | 1,736 | #221 | 1.0 |
| 2020 | 1,686 | #221 | 1.0 |
| 2019 | 1,833 | #210 | 1.0 |
| 2018 | 1,628 | #236 | 0.90 |
| 2017 | 1,333 | #271 | 0.72 |
| 2016 | 1,033 | #337 | 0.54 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,018 | #338 | 0.53 |
| 2014 | 979 | #339 | 0.51 |
| 2013 | 975 | #333 | 0.52 |
| 2012 | 958 | #331 | 0.51 |
| 2011 | 954 | #327 | 0.50 |
| 2010 | 945 | #331 | 0.49 |
| 2009 | 821 | #369 | 0.41 |
| 2008 | 502 | #532 | 0.25 |
| 2007 | 428 | #593 | 0.21 |
| 2006 | 212 | #910 | 0.10 |
| 2005 | 186 | #938 | 0.09 |
| 2004 | 143 | #1,101 | 0.07 |
| 2003 | 157 | #1,007 | 0.08 |
| 2002 | 195 | #848 | 0.10 |
| 2001 | 190 | #846 | 0.10 |
| 2000 | 197 | #814 | 0.10 |
| 1999 | 194 | #790 | 0.10 |
| 1998 | 210 | #759 | 0.11 |
| 1997 | 242 | #673 | 0.13 |
| 1996 | 246 | #669 | 0.13 |
| 1995 | 236 | #690 | 0.12 |
| 1994 | 254 | #652 | 0.13 |
| 1993 | 236 | #668 | 0.12 |
| 1992 | 225 | #688 | 0.11 |
| 1991 | 201 | #712 | 0.10 |
| 1990 | 174 | #764 | 0.08 |
| 1989 | 167 | #764 | 0.08 |
| 1988 | 194 | #676 | 0.10 |
| 1987 | 266 | #557 | 0.14 |
| 1986 | 224 | #592 | 0.12 |
| 1985 | 271 | #530 | 0.15 |
| 1984 | 273 | #517 | 0.15 |
| 1983 | 351 | #442 | 0.20 |
| 1982 | 344 | #460 | 0.19 |
| 1981 | 20 | #2,427 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 7 | #5,029 | under 0.01 |
| 1979 | 20 | #2,393 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 9 | #3,912 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 16 | #2,678 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 13 | #2,973 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 15 | #2,657 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 17 | #2,377 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 13 | #2,740 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 14 | #2,554 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 16 | #2,381 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 8 | #3,571 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 10 | #2,898 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 7 | #3,429 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #3,626 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 11 | #2,496 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 15 | #2,101 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 10 | #2,706 | under 0.01 |
| 1962 | 8 | #3,089 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 11 | #2,575 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 8 | #3,080 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 10 | #2,673 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,295 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Colt a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Colt has been given almost only to boys: 11 girls in 67 years of records.
Girls and boys named Colt: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Colt, and how old are they?
27,400 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 27,880 Americans ever recorded as Colt. The median Colt alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 18,214 people named Colt (55 women and girls, 18,159 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 19,414 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 41 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 174 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 3,510 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,450 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 17,300 |
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 Colt born?
The states with the most babies named Colt are Texas, California and Ohio, with 23% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 132 | #292 | 1.3× |
| California | 71 | #448 | 0.5× |
| Ohio | 61 | #212 | 1.4× |
| Pennsylvania | 57 | #220 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 50 | #384 | 0.8× |
| Tennessee | 46 | #201 | 1.1× |
| Georgia | 40 | #310 | 0.8× |
| Indiana | 38 | #220 | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 37 | #272 | 0.9× |
| Utah | 34 | #159 | 1.4× |
Where Colt is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Colt is most over-represented in Montana: since 1957 it was given 2.8 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 Colt 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 30,954 babies since 1880, Colt is the most given (90% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,188 of their 1,317 babies (90%), 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 Colt
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 Colt and names like it
- Compare Colt and KoltBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sColt peaked in 2019.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Colt since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Colt: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Colt.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Colt alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with CMost given first.