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The surnameCollins

A patronymic surname, the 59th most common in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈkɑlɪnz/ 2 syllables Soundex C452 Also a first name

Collins: #59 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Collins #59, 329,770 people Collins: #59 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#1,000Archer Collins #59, 329,770 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Collins is more common than 99.9% of them.

Origin

* As an English surname, variant of Colin. * As an Irish and Manx surname, from Ó Coileáin (“descendant of Coileán”), see Cullen, McQuillan, and McCallion. * As a French surname, Americanized from Collin and Colette. * As a Slovene surname, Americanized from Kolenc, from koleno (“knee”) and the obsolete kolenc (“nipplewort”).

Collins is a patronymic surname: formed from a father’s (or ancestor’s) given name.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 329,770 people named Collins in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 936 Americans. That is up 3.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 317,848.

#59
rank among US surnames
329,770
people in 2010
112
per 100,000 Americans
+3.8%
change since 2000 (was #52)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#50Roberts376,774819
#51Gomez365,655844
#52Phillips360,802856
#53Evans355,593868
#54Turner348,627886
#55Diaz347,636888
#56Parker336,221918

Who is named Collins

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

72% of people named Collins identified as white (not Hispanic), 22% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.5% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

  • White (not Hispanic) 72%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 22%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
  • Two or more races 2.2%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.8%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Collinss

100 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Michael Collins
    American astronaut (1930–2021)
  • Lily Collins
    British-American actress (born 1989)
  • Suzanne Collins
    American television writer and novelist, born 1962
  • Eileen Collins
    Astronaut and United States Air Force pilot, born 1956
  • Misha Collins
    American actor, born 1974
  • Francis Collins
    American geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health, born 1950
  • Lynn Collins
    American actress, born 1977
  • Jackie Collins
    British-American writer and actress (1937–2015)
  • Judy Collins
    American singer-songwriter and musician (born 1939)
  • Pauline Collins
    British actress (1940–2025)
  • Stephen Collins
    American actor, born 1947
  • Danielle Collins
    American tennis player, born 1993

Notable Collinss come mostly from the United States (90), the United Kingdom (7) and Australia (2).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Surnames that sound like Collins

Collins has the Soundex code C452, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code C452.

Questions

Where does the surname Collins come from?
* As an English surname, variant of Colin. * As an Irish and Manx surname, from Ó Coileáin (“descendant of Coileán”), see Cullen, McQuillan, and McCallion. * As a French surname, Americanized from Collin and Colette. * As a Slovene surname, Americanized from Kolenc, from koleno (“knee”) and the…
How common is the surname Collins?
329,770 people in the United States had the surname Collins in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 936 Americans. It ranked 59th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Collins?
In the 2010 Census, 72% of people named Collins identified as white (not Hispanic), and 22% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Collins?
Michael Collins, American astronaut (1930–2021), followed by Lily Collins.