Given name & surname
Colm
“one who burns charcoal; resembling a dove”
Colm is a variant of Coleman. One English interpretation is “one who burns charcoal; resembling a dove.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
Colm is a variant of Coleman. One English interpretation is “one who burns charcoal; resembling a dove.”
Explained through its name family
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Latin.
How it developed
From Irish Colm, from Late Latin Columba (“dove”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1962. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Colm through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 662
- 662 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2007
- 28 babies
- 2025
- 12
- #6,881 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- −1%
- Steady
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 12 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 6,881 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 1.3% lower in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 911 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Colm’s family of names
Colm has an affectionate form in Cóilín. In Irish usage, Colm shares a linguistic root with the Scottish Gaelic form Calum. Colm has a related form in Coleman.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 2
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 1
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Colm
- Colm TóibínIrish novelist and writer (born 1955)
- Colm MeaneyIrish actorborn 1953
- Colm FeoreAmerican-born Canadian actorborn 1958
- Colm WilkinsonIrish tenorborn 1944
- Colm BairéadIrish film directorborn 1981
- Colm BurkeIrish politicianborn 1957
- Colm O'ReillyIrish bishopborn 1935
- Colm MarkeyIrish politicianborn 1972
- Colm O'GormanIrish politicianborn 1966
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
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