Chico
Masculine · “boy”
Chico is a Spanish word meaning small, or a boy, or simply mate — and in America it has been a first name, a nickname and a stage name at once for over a century. Two of the men who carried it are remembered for entirely opposite reasons, which suits a name that has never settled on one register.
How old is the name Chico?
Chico first appears in US birth records in 1922 — 103 years ago. The typical Chico alive today was born around 1977, making them about 48 years old. About 800 people named Chico are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Chico most popular?
Chico peaked in 1977, reaching #1177 nationally. See the whole 1977 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Spanish chico: small, a boy, and a friendly form of address to Chico
The story of Chico
The Marx brothers got their stage names in a poker game in 1914, from a comedian who was working the same circuit and handing out nicknames as a joke. Leonard became Chicko, because he chased girls — chickens, in the slang of the day — and a typesetter dropped the k when the act was billed, so that a private joke about womanising became a name that looked Italian, which suited the accent he had already been using onstage for years. He kept it for the rest of his life. The other Chico most people can name is Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper who organized the men who worked the Amazon forest into a movement against clearing it, argued that the forest was their livelihood and not an obstacle to it, and was shot at his own back door in 1988 by a rancher's son.
Meaning
boy; small
The Spanish adjective means small, and used as a noun it means a boy or a young man; in much of Latin America it also works as an ordinary friendly form of address between men, closer to English mate than to anything about age. It is also the standard familiar form of the name Francisco, which is where a great many Chicos actually get it from. Nothing about the word is disputed — the only question for any given bearer is whether it came from the adjective or from the longer name.
How the name formed
- Spanish chico: small, a boy, and a friendly form of address
- It serves as the standard familiar form of Francisco
- 1914: a poker-game nickname is misprinted and sticks to a Marx brother
- 1988: Chico Mendes is killed for organizing Amazon rubber tappers
- The word is used as a given name in American records
Related forms: Chico · Chico · Francisco
Pronouncing Chico
CHEE-koh
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The ch is the sound in church, not the one in machine; SHEE-koh is a French reading of the letters and is not how the word is said in any Spanish-speaking country.
Nicknames for Chico
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1922
- Most boys named
- 197756 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1177reached in 1977
- Change vs 2019
- +40.0%7 in 2020, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Chico in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Chico in Spanish — same name
- Chico in Portuguese — same name
- Francisco in Spanish — related form
Chicos among us
people named Chico are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Chico sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, memorable and easy to say for speakers of both languages
- A real word with a plain meaning that a child can be told in a sentence
- Carries warmth rather than formality, which suits some families exactly
- It is an ordinary common noun in Spanish, so in Spanish-speaking settings the name is also a word being used about the child.
- The name reads as a nickname to many people, and formal documents may not suit it.
- Its two most famous bearers are a comedian and a murdered activist, which is a wide range of association to inherit.
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Chico
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Chicos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Chico are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Chico in 2025?
- Chico is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Chico with classmates?
- Chico will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More C names
The most-given names starting with C, all years combined.
Charles#48 · Christopher#68 · Carl#1132 · Christian#96 · Caleb#58 · Cameron#76 · Carlos#150 · Clarence#1499
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Chico? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Chico and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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