Kol
A masculine name of Scandinavian origin meaning "charcoal" or "black".
Name Census estimates that about 433 living Americans carry the first name Kol. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Kol today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kol births was 2021 (50 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kol. 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 Kol with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
433
~ 1 in 791,580 Americans
Peak year
2021
50 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,352
Tracked since 2000
Census
Kol in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 396 people with the first name Kol, which placed it at #24,370 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
#24,370
National first-name rank
People counted
396
396 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kol
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kol is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Kol 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 Kol at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.0% · 281
- Black or African American7.1% · 28
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 28
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.8% · 27
- Two or more races6.6% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 6
Popularity
Kol: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kol from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 199 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kol 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 Kol during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Kols live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, Indiana, New York recorded the most babies named Kol, while New York, Indiana, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kol
The name Kol is derived from the Sanskrit language, which is one of the oldest Indo-European languages spoken in ancient India. The name can be traced back to the 5th century BCE, and it is believed to have originated from the Sanskrit word "kola," which means "branch" or "shoot."
In ancient Hindu mythology, Kol was the name of a sage or rishi who was known for his wisdom and spiritual teachings. He is mentioned in the Puranas, which are ancient Hindu texts that were composed between the 3rd and 10th centuries CE.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Kol can be found in the Mahabharata, an ancient Hindu epic poem that dates back to around the 8th century BCE. In the epic, there is a character named Kol Bhrigu, who was a renowned sage and the founder of the Bhrigu clan.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Kol. One of the most famous was Kol Kavat, a 7th-century CE Indian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the field of trigonometry.
Another prominent figure was Kol Nidre, a 13th-century Jewish scholar and composer who is best known for the prayer Kol Nidrei, which is recited on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
In the 16th century, there was Kol Bahadur, a Rajput warrior and military commander who served under the Mughal Empire in India. He was renowned for his bravery and loyalty to the Mughal ruler Akbar the Great.
In the 19th century, Kol Nath was a Hindu saint and spiritual leader who founded the Kol Nath Sampraday, a spiritual movement that emphasized the importance of devotion and service to humanity.
Another notable figure was Kol Seman, a 20th-century Indonesian writer and activist who played a significant role in the country's struggle for independence from Dutch colonial rule.
People
Kol + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kol 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
Kol: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kol?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 433 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kol 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 791,580 US residents.
Is Kol a common name?
We classify Kol as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 436 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kol most popular?
The single biggest year for Kol was 2021, when 50 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kol is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kol in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 396 people with the name Kol, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,370 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 Kol 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 Kol?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kol leans strongly male. 372 people counted with this name were male (93.5%), compared with 26 female bearers (6.5%). 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 Kol?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kol is White at 71.0%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Kol most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kol in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.0% (281 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 Kol in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kol a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Kol 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 Kol still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kol 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 Kol 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 Kol?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.