Girls' name · peaked in 1964

Colleen name popularity since 1925

161,388 babies born in the US from 1925 to 2025 were named Colleen. Half of them were born in 1964 or earlier, so the typical Colleen is about 62 years old in 2026. Colleen peaked in 1964 as the #94 name for girls, and it was outside the top 1,000 in 2025.

US babies since 1925: 161,388; Named Colleen, 1925–2025
Peak year: 1964; #94 for girls that year
Typical age: About 62; Median birth year 1964
In 2025: Not top 1,000; #2,829 for girls in 2025
Girls / boys: 99.8% girls; 161,058 girls · 330 boys
Most popular in: Montana; 2.44× its national share

Peak year is the year Colleen made up the largest share of US girls, in records going back to 1880. Typical age is based on births from 1925 on, not on who is living today.

Colleen births per year, 1925–2025

1964 was the biggest year for Colleen both by count and as a share of all babies.

Fastest rise: Between 1947 and 1952, Colleen became 2.6× more common, from 1 in 1,400 baby girls to 1 in 534.
Steepest fall: Between 2001 and 2006, its share of baby girls fell by 56%, from 1 in 2,830 to 1 in 6,420.

Shaded on the chart. Both compare Colleen's share of all US girls five years apart, counting only years with at least 100 babies named Colleen.

Decade by decade

Babies named Colleen in each decade, and its rank among girls' names in the middle year of the decade (1935, 1945 … 2025).

Decade	Girls	Boys	Rank
1925–29	4,869	6	–
1930s	7,428	12	#242
1940s	10,473	5	#233
1950s	35,913	32	#110
1960s	40,673	89	#93
1970s	23,759	86	#133
1980s	19,468	94	#150
1990s	12,927	0	#224
2000s	3,881	6	#775
2010s	1,274	0	#1,816
2020–25	393	0	#2,829

Ranks count every name given to at least 5 girls that year, so they can go past 1,000.

Generation fingerprint

40.0% of babies named Colleen from 1925 to 2025 were born in the Baby Boom years (1946–1964). The full split by generation:

Where Colleen is most popular

The index compares Colleen's share of babies in each state with its share nationwide, 1925–2025 (1.50× = 50% more common). States with at least 300 babies named Colleen.

State	Index	Babies
Montana	2.44×	1,141
North Dakota	2.15×	1,085
Minnesota	2.11×	6,151
Rhode Island	1.96×	1,113
Massachusetts	1.95×	7,411

Other spellings

Spellings that sound like Colleen and were given to at least 1,000 girls from 1925 to 2025, with the year each one was most popular.

Spelling	Girls	Peak year
Colleen (this page)	161,058	1964
Coleen	11,844	1963
Kolleen	1,016	1962

Names with a similar story

Of the other 499 names on this site, these six had the share of babies closest in shape to Colleen's from 1925 to 2025, however common each one got. Each line is scaled to its own high; the dashed line is Colleen.

Names from the same era

Other common names that peaked within two years of Colleen (1964).

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration national and state baby-name data, which covers names given to at least 5 babies of one sex in a year. About the data