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Colin

A Celtic name that means "young hound". In Poland it stays rare and strictly a boy's name, and after a peak in the 2010s the yearly count keeps slipping.

Colin Pronunciation

Colin is pronounced TSO-leen (/ˈt͡sɔlin/).

Alive in 2025
836
Newborns 2025
13
National rank
#1034

What Colin means

Where Colin comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.

Colin grows from a Celtic root, the old word for a young hound or cub. Scottish Gaelic kept it as Cailean, and the Campbell chiefs long bore the style MacCailean Mór, son of the great whelp. The literal sense stays close to the animal. Young cub, young hound.

The Celtic origin is one thing, the cultural home is another. Colin took root in England, where by the medieval period it read as an everyday name. Edmund Spenser gave the shepherd of his poetry the name Colin Clout, and the label clung to English pastoral verse for generations after.

A Polish child called Colin today would meet the name mostly on an official form at the urząd, an import rather than a name-day fixture. It has no Polish diminutives of its own and no imieniny to mark. What the name keeps is the Gaelic whelp, Cailean, and a meaning that has never strayed far: young hound.

How many people are named Colin

1 in 25656 men in Poland is named Colin. 836 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #1034 among male names.

People with the name Colin 2019 → 2025
836 +263 since 2019
2020 599 +26
2021 654 +55
2022 703 +49
2023 747 +44
2024 792 +45
2025 836 +44

Colin's popularity over time

13 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #628 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2002.

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13 newborns with the name Colin in 2025
national rank #628 that year

Where Colin is most popular

Colin is most popular in Lower Silesian, 240% above the national average (25 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Opole (+132%) and Silesian (+107%). It is least common in Łódź and Kuyavian-Pomeranian, 66% and 61% below average respectively.

More common than average Less common than average

Colin as a middle name

Colin is a first name for 836 men in Poland and a middle name for another 151, an 85/15 split. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 567th, between Symeon (152) and Gaweł (151).

As a first name
836
As a middle name
151
first name 85% middle name 15%
Middle-name ranking men

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