English. Colin was a medieval pet name for Col, a short form for Nicholas, from Greek "victorious". Colin, may appear in old documents in place of Nicholas. It has long been a given name in its own right.

Colin is the Anglicized form of the Gaelic Cailean "a youth" or "follower of Saint Columba". While Colin and Callum are both Anglicized versions of Cailean, they are not, generally, interchangeable. We have therefore classed them as "Lesser Synonyms".

Colin occurs reasonably frequently in the 1841 Census of Aberdeenshire with a few spelling variations which will all be found by Soundex searches.

There is no connection with the Scottish name Coll, an Anglicization of the Gaelic Colla.