Girl · Irish
Colleen
Say it: kah-LEEN
Meaning
From the Irish word cailín 'girl'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
Used mainly in America and Australia rather than Ireland; popular in the US in the 1950s and 1960s.
Its wave through time
Fading since the 1960s
In the United States
- 162,748 babies given this name since 1901
- At its height in 1964, about 1 in 417 girls
- 63 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Coleen, Colene
Famous bearers
- Colleen Dewhurst, Canadian-American actress
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.