Colten
Colten was given to 238 boys in 2025, #966 among boys’ names; 16,358 Americans have been recorded with it since 1978 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 16,100 Americans named Colten and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 12 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Colten by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Colten mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Colten is “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
Modern re-spelling of Colton.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Colten?
#966 among boys’ names, 2025
Colten fell from #550 in 2015 to #966 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.27 to 0.14 per 1,000.
757 babies in 2009, the peak
Colten peaked in 2009, when 757 boys were given it, #395 among boys’ names. The 238 births of 2025 are 31% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 238 | #966 | 0.14 |
| 2024 | 263 | #899 | 0.15 |
| 2023 | 250 | #923 | 0.15 |
| 2022 | 250 | #923 | 0.14 |
| 2021 | 276 | #852 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 320 | #755 | 0.19 |
| 2019 | 362 | #694 | 0.20 |
| 2018 | 384 | #658 | 0.21 |
| 2017 | 362 | #687 | 0.20 |
| 2016 | 443 | #608 | 0.23 |
Every recorded year (46)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 521 | #550 | 0.27 |
| 2014 | 608 | #474 | 0.32 |
| 2013 | 648 | #443 | 0.34 |
| 2012 | 721 | #407 | 0.38 |
| 2011 | 750 | #386 | 0.39 |
| 2010 | 729 | #390 | 0.38 |
| 2009 | 757 | #395 | 0.38 |
| 2008 | 724 | #410 | 0.35 |
| 2007 | 585 | #465 | 0.28 |
| 2006 | 505 | #513 | 0.25 |
| 2005 | 404 | #577 | 0.20 |
| 2004 | 391 | #577 | 0.20 |
| 2003 | 363 | #594 | 0.18 |
| 2002 | 395 | #564 | 0.20 |
| 2001 | 399 | #541 | 0.21 |
| 2000 | 411 | #531 | 0.21 |
| 1999 | 399 | #526 | 0.21 |
| 1998 | 442 | #492 | 0.23 |
| 1997 | 464 | #468 | 0.25 |
| 1996 | 417 | #500 | 0.22 |
| 1995 | 377 | #522 | 0.20 |
| 1994 | 339 | #556 | 0.18 |
| 1993 | 412 | #502 | 0.21 |
| 1992 | 318 | #570 | 0.16 |
| 1991 | 302 | #584 | 0.15 |
| 1990 | 266 | #616 | 0.13 |
| 1989 | 255 | #615 | 0.13 |
| 1988 | 134 | #815 | 0.07 |
| 1987 | 48 | #1,484 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 30 | #1,966 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 26 | #2,125 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 24 | #2,174 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 19 | #2,504 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 13 | #3,318 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,209 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 5 | #5,964 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Colten a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Colten has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 46 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Colten: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Colten, and how old are they?
16,100 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 16,358 Americans ever recorded as Colten. The median Colten alive today is 18 years old; half are between 12 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 12,819 people named Colten (30 women and girls, 12,789 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 14,642 born in the U.S. The Census count is 12% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,870 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 8,310 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,890 |
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 Colten born?
The states with the most babies named Colten are Michigan, Indiana and Texas, with 24% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Indiana is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | 18 | #465 | 1.1× |
| Indiana | 15 | #458 | 2.2× |
| Texas | 12 | #1,498 | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 12 | #722 | 1.4× |
| Tennessee | 11 | #646 | 1.1× |
| Kentucky | 11 | #430 | 1.5× |
| Missouri | 9 | #603 | 2.2× |
| California | 9 | #1,715 | 0.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 8 | #930 | 0.9× |
| Minnesota | 8 | #598 | 1.6× |
Where Colten is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Colten is most over-represented in West Virginia: since 1978 it was given 2.3 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 Colten 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 199,924 babies since 1880, Colten is the third most given (8.2% of them). In 2025 it was given to 238 of their 4,382 babies (5.4%), again the third 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 Colten
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 Colten and names like it
- Compare Colten and ColtonBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sColten peaked in 2009.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Colten since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Colten: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Colten.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Colten alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.