Colleen
A feminine name of Irish origin meaning "girl".
Name Census estimates that about 122,779 living Americans carry the first name Colleen. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Colleen today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Colleen births was 1964 (4,558 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Colleen. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Colleen with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Colleen is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 330 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Colleen have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
123K
~ 1 in 2,792 Americans
Peak year
1964
4,558 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2005 SSA rank
#2,797
Tracked since 1901
Census
Colleen in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 137,520 people with the first name Colleen, which placed it at #412 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#412
National first-name rank
People counted
138K
137,520 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
45.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
92.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Colleen
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Colleen is White at 92.7%. The next largest groups are Black (2.1%) and Two or More Races (1.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Colleen described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Colleen at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White92.7% · 127,421
- Black or African American2.1% · 2,831
- Two or more races1.9% · 2,641
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 2,227
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 1,627
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 773
Gender
Gender distribution for Colleen
Out of the 163,029 babies given the name Colleen since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Colleen as a male name
- Ranked #10,345 in 2005
- 6 male births in 2005
- Peak: 1985 (15 births)
Colleen as a female name
- Ranked #2,797 in 2024
- 60 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1964 (4,544 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Colleen appears almost entirely female. Of the 137,514 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Colleen: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Colleen from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 40,762 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Colleen by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Colleen during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Colleens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Colleen, while Mississippi, Arkansas, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,123 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Colleen
Colleen is a feminine given name of Irish origin. It is the English form of the Irish Gaelic word 'cailín' which means 'girl' or 'young woman'. The name Colleen emerged in the early 19th century as a romanticized term for an Irish maiden or lass.
The earliest recorded use of the name Colleen dates back to the 1820s when it appeared in literature and poetry depicting idealized Irish rural life and culture. Some of the earliest references can be found in works by authors like William Allingham and Charles Gavan Duffy.
One of the earliest notable people with the name Colleen was Colleen Bawn (c.1815-1819), an Irish woman whose tragic story was the inspiration for Gerald Griffin's novel "The Collegians" published in 1829. The novel popularized the name further, portraying Colleen Bawn as a symbol of Irish beauty and innocence.
Another early bearer of the name was Colleen Moore (1900-1988), an American film actress who became a major star during the silent film era. She was known for her bobbed haircut style which influenced fashion trends in the 1920s.
Colleen Dewhurst (1924-1991) was a Canadian-American actress renowned for her work on stage, television, and film. She won two Tony Awards and four Emmy Awards during her illustrious career.
Colleen McCullough (1937-2015) was an Australian author best known for her novel "The Thorn Birds" which became an international bestseller and was adapted into a popular television miniseries.
Colleen Fitzpatrick (1948-2010) was an American pop singer and actress who had a successful career in the 1960s and 1970s, best known for hits like "Playboy" and "Watching the Detectives".
While the name Colleen has its roots in Irish culture, it has gained widespread popularity across various English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States, Canada, and Australia.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Colleen
People
Colleen + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Colleen as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Colleen: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Colleen?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 122,779 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Colleen going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,792 US residents.
Is Colleen a common name?
We classify Colleen as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 163,029 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Colleen most popular?
The single biggest year for Colleen was 1964, when 4,558 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Colleen is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Colleen in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 137,520 people with the name Colleen, or 45.53 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #412 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Colleen in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Colleen?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Colleen appears almost entirely female. Of the 137,514 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Colleen?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Colleen is White at 92.7%. The next largest groups are Black (2.1%) and Two or More Races (1.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Colleen most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Colleen in the 2020 Census, accounting for 92.7% (127,421 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Colleen in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Colleen a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Colleen in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Colleen still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Colleen in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Colleen can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Colleen?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.