Name Awesome

Columbus

Boys' name

A dove

Columbus has been given to 7,517 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1922, with 187 recorded.

Babies named Columbus, 2023

1 in 663,000

Columbus over time, 1880–2025

Boys
05010015020018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Columbus: meaning, origin, and history

A dove

Latin

What Columbus means

Columbus means “a dove”, associated with columbus.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

From Latin columbus (“a dove”). Doublet of Colombo. The common noun and verb are references to the Italian explorer.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Columbus (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Columbus is used in English. Its origins include Latin.

Columbus comes through Latin columbus.

Pronunciation and spelling

In English, Columbus is pronounced /kəˈlʌmbəs/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 7,517 boys were recorded with the name Columbus between 1880 and 2023. Its highest annual count was 187 in 1922; its best national rank was #192 in 1880.

How common is Columbus?

Columbus had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2023, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2023
1 in 663,000
5 of 3,314,783 births
Among boys only
1 in 342,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2023
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
459,528 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Columbus sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2023 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 459,528 children born in 2023 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Columbus. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Columbuss were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Columbus was born before 1928 — so the typical Columbus is around 97 today.

Median birth year
1928
About 97 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
20.3% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,672
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 20.3% of all recorded uses (1,526).

Is Columbus rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1922 (187)
Years since peak
103
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
46.0% average annual change
Best rank ever
#192
1880

Where Columbus is used

Across 1910–2025, Columbus was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 4,545 boys, against 1 in 18,973 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

022 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Mississippi1 in 4,545
  2. 2Arkansas1 in 5,556
  3. 3Alabama1 in 6,250
  4. 4South Carolina1 in 7,143
  5. 5Georgia1 in 8,333
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 8,333
  7. 7Louisiana1 in 11,111
  8. 8Kentucky1 in 20,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Columbus has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Columbus around the world

Where Columbus ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2001–2001
    #3,134
    in 2001

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0.

Notable people named Columbus

People whose public names include Columbus, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Columbus by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#192
1880
Peak year
1922
187 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2023
All-time count
7,517
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Columbus

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

CollinsColemanColetonColesonColsonColterCollierColtenColstonColtinColsenColtynColmanColvinColdenColeyColestonCollynColonelCollinColbertColbyColtColtrane

Names with a curve like Columbus

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Columbus, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

DewittNewtonLymanGranvilleWinfieldMoseHarmonAlvaBudClemArlieVerne

Sibling names for Columbus

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Columbus

Top names of 1922, Columbus's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1880More old man namesBoys' names starting with CLatin Boy Names