Colita
A feminine name of Spanish origin meaning "little tail".
Name Census estimates that about 36 living Americans carry the first name Colita. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Colita today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Colita births was 1973 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Colita. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Colita. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
36
~ 1 in 9,520,954 Americans
Peak year
1973
11 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
1981 SSA rank
#7,527
Tracked since 1959
Census
Colita in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 112 people with the first name Colita, which placed it at #51,666 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
#51,666
National first-name rank
People counted
112
112 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
48.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Colita
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Colita is Black at 48.2%. The next largest groups are White (28.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.3%). 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 Colita 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 Colita at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American48.2% · 54
- White28.6% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.3% · 16
- Two or more races4.5% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.6% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 1
Popularity
Colita: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Colita from the 1950s through to the 1980s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 16 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Colita remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Colita 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 Colita 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 Colita
Colita is a Spanish diminutive form of the name Cola, which itself is a shortened version of the name Nicolasa. The name Nicolasa has its roots in the Greek name Nikolaos, meaning "victory of the people." The earliest known usage of the name Colita can be traced back to the late 16th century in Spain and parts of Latin America.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Colita is found in the baptismal records of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where a young girl named Colita Guadalupe was baptized in 1598. This suggests that the name was already in use among Spanish colonists in the Americas by the late 16th century.
In the 17th century, a Spanish noblewoman named Colita de Mendoza y Figueroa (1612-1678) gained fame for her patronage of the arts and her support for the poor in her hometown of Seville. Her legacy as a philanthropist and patron of the arts helped popularize the name in Spain during this period.
During the 19th century, the name Colita gained some prominence in Latin American literature. One notable example is the character Colita Fernández, a young protagonist in the popular Venezuelan novel "La Tregua" (The Truce) by Rafael Romero (1837-1909).
In the early 20th century, a Mexican artist named Colita Cano (1893-1964) gained recognition for her vibrant paintings depicting scenes of everyday life in Mexico. Her work was instrumental in promoting Mexican folk art and culture on an international stage.
Another notable figure with the name Colita was Colita de Vilallonga (1920-2002), a Spanish aristocrat and socialite who was widely admired for her elegance and philanthropic endeavors. She played a significant role in promoting Spanish culture and traditions throughout her lifetime.
While the name Colita has its roots in the Spanish language, it has also been adopted and used in other cultures and languages around the world, particularly in Latin America. However, it remains most closely associated with its Spanish and Latin American heritage.
People
Colita + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Colita 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
Colita: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Colita?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 36 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Colita 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 9,520,954 US residents.
Is Colita a common name?
We classify Colita as "Very Rare". It ranks above 49.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 41 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Colita most popular?
The single biggest year for Colita was 1973, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Colita 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 Colita in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 112 people with the name Colita, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,666 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 Colita 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 Colita?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Colita appears almost entirely female. Of the 106 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Colita?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Colita is Black at 48.2%. The next largest groups are White (28.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.3%). 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 Colita most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Colita in the 2020 Census, accounting for 48.2% (54 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 Colita in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Colita a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Colita 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 Colita still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Colita 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 Colita 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 common is the name Colita?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.