Colten
- Pronunciation
- [Col-ten]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Coal Town.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Colten
Colten is an English given name with the meaning "coal town" — a topographic or place-name origin pointing to Old English col ("coal" or "charcoal") combined with tūn ("settlement" or "town," the source of the common English -ton suffix). Like many English place-name surnames, Colten made the transition to given-name use through the American tradition of adopting strong, consonant-rich family names, particularly those with a Western or rugged character. It is a variant of the more common Colton, with the -en ending providing a slight phonetic and visual distinction while pointing to the same etymological root.
Colten first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2000 and peaked in 2011 at rank #386 — with its peak occurring more than a decade into its chart life, suggesting the name built momentum steadily rather than peaking immediately. It has remained on the chart continuously through 2024, recording 262 births at rank #895 that year. Total top-1000-qualifying births across the full window reached approximately 11,817. Its consistent presence across 25 years and its 2011 peak, well into the chart run, mark it as a name with genuine sustained appeal rather than a pure trend entry.
Colten fits comfortably in the American tradition of short, strong, consonant-heavy masculine names with industrial or landscape overtones — Coal, Cole, Colt, Colton, Colten all occupy adjacent territory. Its -en ending gives it a slightly softer close than the -on form, which may account for the small distinction in use patterns between the two spellings across their overlapping chart lives. No variants are recorded for this specific spelling.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Colten
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Colten by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2009 with 757 boys named Colten (boy rank #395 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #966 for boys (238 US births). That's 571 places below its 2009 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 Colten 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 Colten the strongest states are Hawaii, West Virginia, Missouri.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | #259 | 16 |
| 2 | West Virginia | #282 | 37 |
| 3 | Missouri | #450 | 130 |
| 4 | Kentucky | #481 | 83 |
| 5 | Mississippi | #496 | 30 |
| 6 | Indiana | #505 | 127 |
| 7 | Michigan | #513 | 146 |
| 8 | Iowa | #540 | 22 |
| 9 | Ohio | #556 | 170 |
| 10 | Louisiana | #569 | 61 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #1,207 | 33 |
| 2 | Texas | #1,004 | 113 |
| 3 | Florida | #917 | 94 |
| 4 | Georgia | #821 | 65 |
| 5 | Illinois | #794 | 62 |
| 6 | Washington | #794 | 45 |
| 7 | Virginia | #747 | 68 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #745 | 105 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | #730 | 111 |
| 10 | Colorado | #730 | 30 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Colten in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Looking for names like Colten?
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 Colten to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Colten against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).