Colm
An Irish masculine name from the Gaelic "colm" meaning "dove".
Name Census estimates that about 633 living Americans carry the first name Colm. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Colm today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Colm births was 2007 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Colm. 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 Colm with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
633
~ 1 in 541,476 Americans
Peak year
2007
28 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,216
Tracked since 1962
Census
Colm in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 922 people with the first name Colm, which placed it at #13,189 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
#13,189
National first-name rank
People counted
922
922 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Colm
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Colm is White at 93.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.9%) and Hispanic (2.0%). 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 Colm 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 Colm at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.8% · 865
- Two or more races2.9% · 27
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 18
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 9
- Black or African American0.2% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Colm: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Colm from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 189 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Colm remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Colm 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 Colm during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Colms live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Colm, while Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Colm
The name Colm is of Irish origin, derived from the Gaelic name Colmán, which means "dove". It has been used in Ireland since ancient times and is associated with several notable figures in Irish history and folklore.
The name Colm is believed to have been introduced into Ireland during the 5th or 6th century AD, as Christianity spread throughout the island. Several early Irish saints bore this name, including St. Colm Cille (also known as St. Columba), who was born in 521 AD in County Donegal. He is revered as one of the most influential figures in the spread of Christianity in Ireland and Scotland.
Another significant figure with the name Colm was Colm Cille mac Feradaig (c. 555-639 AD), also known as St. Columba of Iona. He was an Irish monk and missionary who founded several monasteries, including the famous Iona Abbey in Scotland.
In Irish mythology, Colm appears as the name of a legendary hero or warrior. The Fenian Cycle, a collection of tales and legends from ancient Ireland, mentions a figure named Colm mac Crimthainn, who was a member of the Fianna, a group of warrior-hunters led by the famous Finn MacCool.
Throughout Irish history, there have been several notable individuals bearing the name Colm. These include Colm Cille Comhraic (c. 916-962), an Irish king who ruled over the Kingdom of Ailech in the 10th century, and Colm Ó Cléirigh (c. 1590-1644), a renowned Irish historian and chronicler who compiled the Annals of the Four Masters.
In more recent times, the name Colm has been borne by several influential Irish figures, such as Colm Wilkinson (born 1944), a renowned Irish actor and singer who originated the role of Jean Valjean in the musical Les Misérables; Colm Tóibín (born 1955), an acclaimed Irish novelist and essayist; and Colm Feore (born 1958), an Irish-Canadian actor known for his roles in films such as Pearl Harbor and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Colm
People
Colm + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Colm 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
Colm: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Colm?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 633 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Colm 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 541,476 US residents.
Is Colm a common name?
We classify Colm as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 650 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Colm most popular?
The single biggest year for Colm was 2007, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Colm is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Colm in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 922 people with the name Colm, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,189 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 Colm 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 Colm?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Colm appears almost entirely male. Of the 911 people counted with this name, 100.0% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Colm?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Colm is White at 93.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (2.9%) and Hispanic (2.0%). 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 Colm most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Colm in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.8% (865 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 Colm in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Colm a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Colm 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 Colm still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Colm 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 Colm 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 Colm?
You can see how many Americans are named Colm on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.