Find out how popular the last name Collette is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Collette.

Collette, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Collette surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Collette in America

Collette is the 6840th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Collette surname appeared 4,927 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Collette.

We can also compare 2010 data for Collette to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Collette

The surname Collette is of French origin, derived from the medieval French personal name Colette, which was a diminutive form of the name Nicole. The name Nicole itself is thought to have derived from the Greek word "nikolaos," meaning "victory of the people."

The earliest known records of the surname Collette date back to the 12th century in northern France, particularly in the regions of Normandy and Picardy. It was likely first used as a descriptive name for someone small or petite, as the suffix "-ette" in French often denotes diminutive forms.

One of the earliest recorded instances of the surname Collette can be found in the 13th-century Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Saint-Bertin, a collection of charters and records from the Abbey of Saint-Bertin in Saint-Omer, France. In this document, a certain Robert Collette is mentioned as a witness to a land transaction.

During the Middle Ages, the surname Collette was also found in various spellings, such as Collet, Colet, and Collete, reflecting the regional variations in pronunciation and orthography at the time.

Notable individuals who bore the surname Collette include:

1. Colette (1873-1954), the famous French novelist and performer, whose real name was Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.
2. Guillaume Collette (c. 1550-1609), a French composer and music theorist active in the late Renaissance period.
3. Jean-François Collette (1740-1799), a Belgian botanist and author of the "Histoire Naturelle des Insectes Orthoptères" (Natural History of Orthoptera Insects).
4. Marie-Anne Collette (1748-1821), a French sculptor known for her portrait busts and religious works.
5. Paul Collette (1895-1970), a Belgian cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1923.

The surname Collette has also been associated with several place names in France, such as Collette-la-Petite and Collette-la-Grande, suggesting that the name may have been used as a locative surname in some instances, referring to people from those particular places.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Collette

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Collette.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Collette was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Collette has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Collette was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Collette, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!