My wife and I are expecting a young’n soon, and we’re having trouble with the name. We’ve pretty much decided on Colin, but she think it should be Collin, while to me Colin seems like the more “normal” version of the name.
What say the teeming millions? When you hear the name do you assume it’s spelled with one L or two? Do you have a preference otherwise? Thanks in advance!
One L. The other option will subject your child to Correction Hell for the entirety of his life, and he will hate you. Nobody wants that, least of all your wife!
One L. Two L’s looks like the name is missing an S.
Thirded, Colin.
BTW, an easy way to settle your next such dispute is a quick Google search:
colin: almost 80 million hits
collin: 13 million hits
Not even close.
Colin. Collin looks like a last name missing a letter. Colin looks classy.
Colin
Please don’t name your kid Collin nor Colon.
One L.
However, Hostile Dialect notwithstanding, I’m afraid you’re doomed to Correction Hell whatever you do. Calling our daughter Rachel (Google: 98 million hits) versus Rachael (14 million) hasn’t stopped the world and their spouse all wanting to sneak that extra little “a” into her name at every possible opportunity (Great-granny still hasn’t got it figured after 4 Christmases)
But at least you won’t be further contributing to the problem.
Brian
Oh, sure, most people are in Correction Hell. The difference is whether you want the 70 million or the 13 million to be wrong. Which one would be more irritating?
You have obviously met very few Colins (at least of the British variety) 
Colin!
Colin.
Definitely one l. A year ago, I was working in the IT department of a bulk mailer and spent a fair amount of time removing duplicate names from mailing lists. If I’d seen “Colin Smith” and “Collin Smith” at the same address and I had to delete one as a duplicate, I would have deleted the second one.
One L.
Col’n.
Now that’s decided, how about Caitlyn or Caitlin?
I saw Collin for the first time ever the other day (commercial for Jon & Kate Plus 8?) and thought, “Well, at least people will pronounce it right.” I remember reading The Secret Garden as a kid and not being sure whether it should be kah-lin or cole-in.
That said, I’d never spell my kid’s name wrong just to accommodate other people’s ignorance. Colin.
My ex-wife’s name was Karon. People use to correct it for her to Karen even when she had personally filled in forms. It was less amusing when legal documents would arrive with her name “corrected” so that they were no longer valid and we would have to send them back to be redrafted.
So I vote for Colllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllin.