Head to head · Boys' names
Chase vs Cole
#192 vs #182 in 2025 · both stepping back from its peak
Cole is a whisker ahead (#182 vs #192 in 2025) and both are stepping back from its peak. The records will not split these two — sound, story and your own last name will.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Chase leads 3 measures of 6; Cole leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1880s: Chase #936, Cole #845 — Cole higher
- 1890s: Chase #994, Cole #1051 — Chase higher
- 1900s: Chase —, Cole #1316 — Cole higher
- 1910s: Chase #2829, Cole #1372 — Cole higher
- 1920s: Chase #3441, Cole #2102 — Cole higher
- 1930s: Chase #3398, Cole #2143 — Cole higher
- 1940s: Chase #2806, Cole #1662 — Cole higher
- 1950s: Chase #2681, Cole #1016 — Cole higher
- 1960s: Chase #1812, Cole #902 — Cole higher
- 1970s: Chase #805, Cole #690 — Cole higher
- 1980s: Chase #245, Cole #287 — Chase higher
- 1990s: Chase #96, Cole #124 — Chase higher
- 2000s: Chase #78, Cole #77 — Cole higher
- 2010s: Chase #86, Cole #110 — Chase higher
- 2020s: Chase #151, Cole #151
Cole stood higher in 10 of 14 decades; Chase took the 2010s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Chase | Cole |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | #936 | #845 |
| 1890s | #994 | #1051 |
| 1900s | — | #1316 |
| 1910s | #2829 | #1372 |
| 1920s | #3441 | #2102 |
| 1930s | #3398 | #2143 |
| 1940s | #2806 | #1662 |
| 1950s | #2681 | #1016 |
| 1960s | #1812 | #902 |
| 1970s | #805 | #690 |
| 1980s | #245 | #287 |
| 1990s | #96 | #124 |
| 2000s | #78 | #77 |
| 2010s | #86 | #110 |
| 2020s | #151 | #151 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
Around the world
Chase
Not charting outside the US.
Cole
- Scotland#64
National statistics offices, latest published year.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Chase
hunt, or hunting ground
From Old French chacier, 'to hunt', which gave Middle English chace — both the pursuit and the enclosed land set aside for it. As a surname it marked a huntsman.
chacier (Old French) → chace (Middle English) → Chase (English surname) → Chase (given name)
How it traveled
The root is Old French chacier, 'to hunt', carried into England after the Norman Conquest and worn down into Middle English chace. In medieval England a chase was also a place: unfenced hunting land held by a lord, a word still sitting in English place names like Cannock Chase and Chevy Chase, the latter familiar from the fifteenth-century border ballad.
Cole
charcoal; dark-haired
The English surname comes from the Old English byname Cola, built on col, the word for charcoal, and given to someone with dark hair or a dark complexion. There is a second and entirely separate road: Cole is also an old short form of Nicholas, by way of the medieval Coll. Most American Coles descend from the surname, but both are real.
Cola → Cole
How it traveled
Cola was in use as a personal name in England before the Conquest and became one of the commonest sources of surnames in the country — Cole, Coles, Colson and Colman all come out of it. The surname moved to the front of the name in America in the nineteenth century and stayed quiet for a hundred years before rising sharply at the end of the twentieth, which is the usual pattern for a short, hard-edged English surname.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Chase
CHAYSS
One syllable, ending in a clean s sound rather than a z. Spelling and sound match, in English and for most English-speaking countries.
- Chasey — Informal, mostly used within families and by close friends; rarely written down.
- Chay — Occasional spoken clipping; not established as a standalone given name in the US.
Cole
KOHL
One syllable, rhyming with goal. Nothing about the spelling causes anyone the slightest difficulty, in any English-speaking country.
- Coley — The warm extension used to a child; affectionate, informal, and usually set aside by adulthood.
- C — The initial as a name, which is common in American use and needs no explanation.
Who has carried each name
Chase
No documented entry for Chase yet.
Cole
Cole Porter (b. 1891) — Songwriting great of "Anything Goes"
Cole Sprouse (b. 1992) — Riverdale's Jughead
Cole Palmer (b. 2002) — England soccer's ice-cold star
Source: Wikidata — the one source on this page that is not an official agency.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Chase if you want…
- a name fewer children share#192 in 2025 — chase will almost certainly be the only one in school
- a name past its most crowded yearsChase is stepping back from its peak
Choose Cole if you want…
- a name most people already know#182 in 2025, 2,003 babies that year
- a name that charts abroad tooCole is on the national lists of Scotland
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Chase
Strengths
- One syllable, spelled exactly as it sounds — almost never misspelled or mispronounced by an English speaker.
- A documented English surname with a traceable line back to Old French, so the history is real rather than guessed.
- Reads clearly as a given name in the US while still working like a surname, which pairs easily with most last names.
To consider
- It is also an everyday English verb, so the name will meet puns and playground jokes — cut to the chase, chasing after. Most bearers grow used to it early.
- In the US the word is bound up with one of the country's largest banks, which means the name shares its spelling with a brand seen on nearly every high street.
- There is little to shorten. Chase is already as short as it gets, so a child who wants a nickname will have to invent one.
Cole
Strengths
- One syllable and four letters — it fits any form and sits well before almost any surname.
- Nobody has ever had to spell it twice or hear it wrong.
- It is a genuine English name with a documented pre-Conquest history.
To consider
- It has been very well used in the last twenty-five years, so a boy will meet others of his age.
- It is identical to a word for cabbage in several older English contexts, and to a common surname, so introductions carry a small pause.
- Nearly every child given this spelling is a boy; the record's girls are few enough that no form will expect one.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Chase and Cole in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Chase and Cole?
Put both to the vote.
One link to your partner, your parents, your sister. Each of them gets the two names, a one-tap answer and room to say why — and every reply lands in one place.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
- One-syllable names: said in a single beat
- Y2K names: the class of the 2000s
- Strong-sounding names with a hard edge
- all guides
Every list here names both Chase and Cole — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Chase or Cole — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Chase or Cole?
- Cole, in 2025: Cole ranked #182 with 2,003 babies; Chase ranked #192 with 1,904 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Chase or Cole?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Chase moved down 69 places; Cole moved down 49 places.
- Which is the older name, Chase or Cole?
- Chase entered the US charts in 1885; Cole entered the US charts in 1886. On the American record, Chase is the older name.
- How many people are named Chase and Cole?
- About 178,000 people named Chase are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 151,000 people named Cole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Chases or Coles in the classroom?
- Chase will almost certainly be the only one in school. Cole will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025; international figures from national statistics agencies. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
Keep playing
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