Koleman
Of Slavic origin, denoting a person from a coal-mining region.
Name Census estimates that about 237 living Americans carry the first name Koleman. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Koleman today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Koleman births was 1998 (16 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Koleman. 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.
People living today
237
~ 1 in 1,446,221 Americans
Peak year
1998
16 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,326
Tracked since 1997
Census
Koleman in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 219 people with the first name Koleman, which placed it at #36,320 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
#36,320
National first-name rank
People counted
219
219 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Koleman
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Koleman is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Koleman 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 Koleman at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.0% · 184
- Black or African American6.4% · 14
- Two or more races5.9% · 13
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 2
Popularity
Koleman: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Koleman from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 103 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Koleman remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Koleman 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 Koleman during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Koleman
The given name Koleman has its origins in the Celtic cultures of the British Isles and northern France. It is derived from the Old English word "col," meaning charcoal or coal, and the suffix "-man," denoting a person or individual. The name likely emerged during the medieval period, possibly as an occupational surname referring to a charcoal burner or coal miner.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Koleman can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions a landowner named "Colemanus" in Hertfordshire. This suggests that the name was already in use among the Anglo-Norman aristocracy during the 11th century.
In the 12th century, a prominent figure named Koleman appears in the chronicles of the Crusades. Koleman de Beauvais was a French knight who participated in the Third Crusade (1189-1192) under the leadership of King Richard I of England. His name is mentioned in various accounts of the sieges and battles during this military campaign in the Holy Land.
Moving forward to the 16th century, Koleman Heller (c. 1500-1568) was a renowned German Renaissance composer and music theorist. He served as the Kapellmeister (chapel master) at the court of the Electors of Saxony and made significant contributions to the development of Lutheran church music.
In the 18th century, Koleman Hawkins (1744-1824) was an American pioneer and frontiersman who played a crucial role in the settlement of Tennessee and Kentucky. He was a renowned explorer, surveyor, and legislator, and his name is closely associated with the early history of these states.
Another notable figure was Koleman Barenboim (1911-1984), an Argentinian-Israeli physicist and mathematician. He made significant contributions to the field of general relativity and was a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he worked alongside luminaries like Albert Einstein.
Throughout history, various spellings and variations of the name Koleman have been used, such as Coleman, Colman, Coulman, and Colemane, reflecting the linguistic and cultural diversity of the regions where it has been adopted. However, it is important to note that this overview focuses solely on the given name Koleman and does not delve into its use as a surname or family name.
People
Koleman + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Koleman as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Koleman: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Koleman?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 237 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Koleman 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 1,446,221 US residents.
Is Koleman a common name?
We classify Koleman as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 240 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Koleman most popular?
The single biggest year for Koleman was 1998, when 16 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Koleman is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Koleman in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 219 people with the name Koleman, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #36,320 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 Koleman 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 Koleman?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Koleman leans strongly male. 222 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 3 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Koleman?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Koleman is White at 84.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.4%) and Two or More Races (5.9%). 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 Koleman most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Koleman in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.0% (184 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 Koleman in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Koleman a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Koleman in the SSA data are male. 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 Koleman still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Koleman 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 Koleman 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 have Koleman as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Koleman, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.