Nichola
Feminine · “Victory of the people”
Nichola is given to both — 864 girls and 127 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Nichola is an English feminine made by adding the letter that makes feminines — which is the same letter that makes the name masculine in Italy. One vowel, two opposite jobs, two languages.
How old is the name Nichola?
Nichola first appears in US birth records in 1942 — 83 years ago. The typical Nichola alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 800 people named Nichola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nichola most popular?
Nichola peaked in 1969, reaching #1927 nationally. See the whole 1969 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Nichola
The story of Nichola
Italian men's names end in vowels, and a final a is an entirely ordinary ending for one: Andrea, Luca, Elia, Nicola. English has no equivalent — its men's names end in consonants almost without exception — so when English borrows that ending it reads it as unambiguously feminine, because the only names it has ever seen ending that way are women's. The result is that the same four letters make a man's name in Italy and a woman's name in England, and Italian visitors to English-speaking countries with those names spend a good deal of time correcting forms. Nothing has been mistranslated. The two languages simply assigned the letter opposite jobs and neither is going to change.
Meaning
Victory of the people
The Greek original joins the words for victory and people. The ending added here is the Latin feminine a, which English borrowed and uses freely for exactly that purpose.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nicola
- Nichola
Related forms: Nicoletta · Nicole · Nicola
Pronouncing Nichola
NIK-uh-luh
Three syllables, stress at the front. Italian says nee-KOH-lah, with the weight in the middle, for the men's name.
Nicknames for Nichola
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
- 1942
- Most girls named
- 196942 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1927reached in 1969
- Change vs 2006
- −54.5%5 in 2010, from 11
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.
Nichola in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nicoletta in Italian — related form
- Nicole in French — related form
- Nicola in German — same name
Nicholas among us
people named Nichola 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
Nichola 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
- The meaning is settled, ancient and genuinely good.
- It is read correctly on sight throughout the English-speaking world.
- It carries the same short forms as its better-known relatives.
- Nicola and Nichola are both used and hers will be written either way.
- In Italy the name belongs to men, which occasionally matters on paper.
- Most children with this spelling are girls, but a real minority are boys; either may be taken for the other.
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Nichola
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Nicholas 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 Nichola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nichola in 2025?
- Nichola is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Nichola with classmates?
- Nichola will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More N names
The most-given names starting with N, all years combined.
Nancy#965 · Nicole#382 · Natalie#89 · Norma#2002 · Nora#20 · Naomi#47 · Nellie#533 · Nina#324
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nichola? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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