Kolby
Kolby is given to both girls and boys: 42 girls and 165 boys were given it in 2025 (#3,617 among girls’ names and #1,225 among boys’, #2,163 among all names counting both); 13,001 Americans have been recorded with it since 1968 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 12,700 Americans named Kolby and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 14 and 28.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kolby by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kolby mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kolby is “a male given name.”
Modern variant of Colby.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kolby?
#1,225 among boys’ names, 2025
Kolby fell from #828 in 2015 to #1,225 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.14 to 0.10 per 1,000.
781 babies in 2001, the peak
Kolby peaked in 2001, when 781 babies were given it (739 boys, #359 among boys’ names). The 207 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 27% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 42 | #3,617 | 165 | #1,225 |
| 2024 | 38 | #3,930 | 156 | #1,265 |
| 2023 | 46 | #3,456 | 167 | #1,199 |
| 2022 | 27 | #4,974 | 159 | #1,238 |
| 2021 | 25 | #5,167 | 151 | #1,263 |
| 2020 | 23 | #5,399 | 170 | #1,146 |
| 2019 | 25 | #5,233 | 153 | #1,237 |
| 2018 | 26 | #5,081 | 182 | #1,088 |
| 2017 | 35 | #4,185 | 166 | #1,146 |
| 2016 | 38 | #3,963 | 219 | #950 |
Every recorded year (56)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 35 | #4,191 | 272 | #828 |
| 2014 | 50 | #3,253 | 300 | #777 |
| 2013 | 47 | #3,383 | 304 | #749 |
| 2012 | 19 | #6,744 | 286 | #791 |
| 2011 | 35 | #4,194 | 325 | #705 |
| 2010 | 32 | #4,541 | 344 | #684 |
| 2009 | 31 | #4,748 | 371 | #662 |
| 2008 | 38 | #4,134 | 401 | #618 |
| 2007 | 23 | #6,000 | 378 | #643 |
| 2006 | 16 | #7,689 | 341 | #670 |
| 2005 | 17 | #7,004 | 387 | #586 |
| 2004 | 30 | #4,549 | 497 | #493 |
| 2003 | 29 | #4,471 | 543 | #464 |
| 2002 | 44 | #3,218 | 676 | #385 |
| 2001 | 42 | #3,279 | 739 | #359 |
| 2000 | 55 | #2,687 | 396 | #542 |
| 1999 | 52 | #2,686 | 407 | #521 |
| 1998 | 38 | #3,261 | 361 | #550 |
| 1997 | 27 | #4,071 | 274 | #629 |
| 1996 | 40 | #2,988 | 244 | #674 |
| 1995 | 33 | #3,390 | 267 | #633 |
| 1994 | 32 | #3,484 | 215 | #714 |
| 1993 | 32 | #3,463 | 191 | #754 |
| 1992 | 36 | #3,170 | 212 | #704 |
| 1991 | 23 | #4,406 | 205 | #704 |
| 1990 | 26 | #3,952 | 155 | #816 |
| 1989 | 28 | #3,607 | 119 | #932 |
| 1988 | 19 | #4,567 | 108 | #921 |
| 1987 | 17 | #4,770 | 106 | #916 |
| 1986 | 22 | #3,821 | 83 | #1,018 |
| 1985 | 20 | #4,057 | 90 | #964 |
| 1984 | 20 | #3,920 | 50 | #1,337 |
| 1983 | 5 | #11,110 | 51 | #1,302 |
| 1982 | under 5 | 50 | #1,328 | |
| 1981 | under 5 | 20 | #2,454 | |
| 1980 | under 5 | 35 | #1,678 | |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,487 | 24 | #2,130 |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,091 | 21 | #2,248 |
| 1977 | under 5 | 19 | #2,415 | |
| 1976 | under 5 | 20 | #2,294 | |
| 1975 | under 5 | 18 | #2,405 | |
| 1974 | under 5 | 20 | #2,169 | |
| 1973 | under 5 | 15 | #2,561 | |
| 1972 | under 5 | 12 | #2,916 | |
| 1971 | under 5 | 5 | #5,311 | |
| 1968 | under 5 | 5 | #4,453 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Kolby a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 13,001 Americans recorded as Kolby, 10% are girls and 90% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Kolby: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kolby, and how old are they?
12,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 13,001 Americans ever recorded as Kolby. The median Kolby alive today is 22 years old; half are between 14 and 28.
The 2020 Census counted 10,460 people named Kolby (1,065 women and girls, 9,395 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 11,700 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% 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 | 189 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,420 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 7,130 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,000 |
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 Kolby born?
The states with the most babies named Kolby are Texas, Ohio and California, with 36% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 22 | #1,451 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 10 | #836 | 0.3× |
| California | 9 | #1,759 | 0.3× |
| Florida | 9 | #1,309 | 0.6× |
| Georgia | 8 | #1,048 | 0.9× |
| Missouri | 8 | #687 | 1.4× |
| North Carolina | 8 | #980 | 0.9× |
| Kentucky | 8 | #551 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,213 | 0.5× |
| Virginia | 6 | #1,033 | 0.6× |
Where Kolby is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kolby is most over-represented in Utah: since 1968 it was given 2.6 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 Kolby 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, Kolby is the second most given (18% of them). In 2025 it was given to 207 of their 817 babies (25%), again the second 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 Kolby
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 Kolby and names like it
- Compare Kolby and ColbyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKolby peaked in 2001.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kolby since 1910.
- The top names of 2001The year the most babies were named Kolby.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kolby alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.