Origin and history of Colin

masc. proper name, from French Nicolas, from Latin Nicholaus, Nicolaus, from Greek Nikolaos, literally "victory-people," from nikē "victory" (see Nike) + laos "people" (see lay (adj.)). The saint associated with Christmas (died 326 C.E.) was a bishop of Myra in Lycia, patron of scholars, especially schoolboys. A popular given name in England in the Middle Ages (the native form, Nicol, was more common in early Middle English), as was the fem. form Nicola, corresponding to French Nicole. Colloquial Old Nick "the devil" is attested from 1640s (see Nick).

"iced gin drink served in a tall glass" (called a Collins glass), 1940, American English; earlier Tom Collins (by 1878), and earlier still John Collins (by 1865).

Drink historian David Wondrich says the John Collins acquired its name from a poem composed by Charles and Frank Sheridan about a "head-waiter at Limmer's/The corner of Conduit Street, Hanover Square."

The variant name Tom Collins seems to have been the result of conflation with a popular prank of the time, in which a victim would be told that a man named Tom Collins had insulted him, thus the victim would be sent in search of this non-existent person; it may also have been influenced by Old Tom as the name for a style of gin used in the drink (for which see Old Tom.)

Popular in early 1940s; bartending purists at the time denied it could be based on anything but gin. The surname (12c.) is from a masc. proper name, a diminutive of Col, itself a pet form of Nicholas (compare Colin).