Collin
- Pronunciation
- [Co-llin]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Abbreviation Of Nicholas People's Victory.
- Origin
- French
About the Name Collin
Collin is an alternate spelling of Colin (see separate entry on Colin for the medieval English/Old French etymology — originally a short form of Nicholas, ultimately from the Greek Nikolaos meaning "victory of the people"). The double-L Collin spelling is essentially a 20th-21st century American variant.
The two spellings (Collin and Colin) are tracked separately by SSA and represent the same underlying name. The Collin spelling specifically appeals to parents seeking a more visually distinctive form. Notable bearers using either spelling include American basketball player Collin Sexton (born 1999, the Charlotte Hornets NBA player); American actor Colin Farrell (born 1976, the iconic Irish actor); and American politician Collin Peterson.
Collin's American climb has been substantial: the name climbed from outside the US top 500 in 1980 to the US top 200 boys' rank by 1995 and the top 300 since. The name's appeal sits in three contemporary American naming preferences: the in-built Greek-Christian-classical pedigree, the popular two-syllable -in ending family, and the modern visual presence with the distinctive double-L spelling. Two firm syllables, soft consonants, and tonal versatility from rural-American to upwardly-mobile-American. The name reads as both classical-English and contemporary American. Common nicknames Col, Cole (back-end shortening, a popular standalone name on its own), and the rare Lin each carry distinct registers; the alternate spellings Colin, Collin, Collyn, and Cole have their own SSA tracking. International forms include Colin (French/English original), Cailean (Scottish Gaelic), and the broader Nicholas/Nikolaos family.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Collin
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Collin by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2004 with 3,108 boys named Collin (boy rank #130 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #493 for boys (613 US births). That's 363 places below its 2004 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Collin Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Collin the strongest states are Maine, South Dakota, Louisiana.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maine | #222 | 29 |
| 2 | South Dakota | #237 | 22 |
| 3 | Louisiana | #265 | 211 |
| 4 | Kentucky | #267 | 181 |
| 5 | Arkansas | #273 | 130 |
| 6 | Alabama | #291 | 187 |
| 7 | West Virginia | #301 | 25 |
| 8 | Ohio | #312 | 369 |
| 9 | Kansas | #317 | 105 |
| 10 | Nebraska | #332 | 56 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arizona | #637 | 87 |
| 2 | California | #604 | 457 |
| 3 | Florida | #517 | 322 |
| 4 | Washington | #510 | 118 |
| 5 | New Jersey | #509 | 127 |
| 6 | Oregon | #479 | 66 |
| 7 | New York | #478 | 331 |
| 8 | Nevada | #477 | 29 |
| 9 | Illinois | #477 | 223 |
| 10 | Texas | #472 | 646 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Collin in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collins | Abbreviation Of Nicholas People's Victory. | Male | English |
Looking for names like Collin?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Collin to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Collin against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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