Colby is a distinctive girls' name in United States, ranking #1565 in 2002 with 119 recorded births. The name reached its all-time peak in 2000 with 155 births ranking #1262. Since 1996, the popularity has increased by 16.7%. In 2002, approximately 1 in every 15,099 girls born was named Colby. RISING Recent data shows the name is currently rising.
Colby is an English surname-style name with a light, approachable sound. The older place-name meaning is less central to modern use than the name's friendly, sporty feel.
Like many names of its type, Colby entered first-name use through surname tradition and later settled into mainstream naming. It has a very late twentieth-century American profile.