# Colby (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/colby/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A habitational surname from Old Norse.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Norse |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 11,278 |
| US rank (2010) | 3,204 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 27,376 people |
| Change since 2000 | +2.3% (11,023 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkoʊl.bi/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From either the Old Norse personal name Koli or kol (“charcoal”) + býr (“settlement”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Colby in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 93% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.6% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.2% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.8% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Colby in the United States.

## People named Colby

- Bainbridge Colby, American politician (1869-1950)
- William Colby, American intelligence agent (1920–1996)
- Barbara Colby, American actress (1939-1975)
- Elbridge Colby, American official and strategy consultant
- Clara Bewick Colby, British-American lecturer, newspaper publisher and correspondent, women's rights activist,
- Anita Colby, American actress (1914-1992)
- James Colby, American actor (1961-2018)

## Similar surnames

Culp, Clapp, Calvo, Cluff, Clubb, Cliff, Calfee, Calva, Claffey, Cullop.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.