Nicola
Feminine · “Greek nike and laos”
Nicola is given to both — 5,078 girls and 3,012 boys since 1880. See Nicola as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Saint Nicholas became Santa Claus by way of Dutch. Sinterklaas is a contraction of Sint Nicolaas, and Dutch settlers brought the figure to New York, where English speakers heard the contraction and wrote it down as it sounded. A fourth-century bishop from what is now southwestern Turkey is now a man in a red suit because of a Dutch abbreviation.
How old is the name Nicola?
Nicola first appears in US birth records in 1920 — 105 years ago. The typical Nicola alive today was born around 1980, making them about 45 years old. About 4,700 people named Nicola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nicola most popular?
Nicola peaked in 1972, reaching #760 nationally. Today it ranks #8362, 7,602 places below that high. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Nicola
The story of Nicola
Very little is known about the historical bishop. The legends attached to him accumulated over centuries: he saved three girls from destitution by throwing bags of gold through their window at night, which is the source of the gift-giving and possibly of the three balls of the pawnbroker's sign; he restored three murdered children; he calmed a storm at sea. His cult spread enormously, his relics were stolen from Myra and taken to Bari in 1087, and he became one of the most invoked saints in both eastern and western Christianity. The Dutch kept his feast on 6 December with a gift-bringing figure, brought the custom to New Amsterdam, and English-speaking New Yorkers adopted it in the early nineteenth century, when a series of poems and illustrations fixed the modern image. Nicola, the feminine, is chiefly a British form and reached the United States in the 1960s.
Meaning
Greek nike and laos, victory of the people
From Greek nike, victory, and laos, the people, giving victory of the people. Nicholas of Myra was a fourth-century bishop in Lycia, in what is now Turkey, and became the patron of sailors, merchants, pawnbrokers and children. Nicola is the feminine in English and the standard masculine in Italian, which regularly confuses English speakers. It peaks in the American data in 1972.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nicholas
- Nicola
Related forms: Nicola · Nicole · Nikola
Pronouncing Nicola
NIK-uh-lah
Three syllables, stress on the first. In Italian, where the same spelling is a man's name, it is nee-KOH-lah with the stress on the second syllable. The two are genuinely different names sharing a spelling.
Nicknames for Nicola
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
- 1920
- Most girls named
- 1972183 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #760reached in 1972
- Change vs 2023
- −36.8%12 in 2025, from 19
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.
Nicola in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nicola in Italian — related form
- Nicole in French — same name
- Nikola in German — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York.
Nicolas among us
people named Nicola are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 133,939 born in 2025 was named Nicola
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nicola
- #8362
- Nicola on the 2025 chart
- #941
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nicola went to 12 girls in 2025, but Nikola is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 19, which makes it the 941st most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,421 places above the chart.
- Nicola12
- Nikola7
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 133,939 for Nicola itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Leonia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nicola's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leonia climbed just as high around 1903, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leonia's path sketches the road Nicola is walking now.
Nicola sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Nicola beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nicola in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Greek meaning is settled and entirely positive.
- Nicky and Nic are established short forms.
- The saint behind it is among the most widely known in the world.
- In Italy the same spelling is a man's name.
- Nicole is much more common in the United States.
- The name is closely associated with the 1960s and 1970s.
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What they receive
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Nicola
Feminine · #8362 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nicolas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,700 people named Nicola are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nicola?
- Nicola is the most-used spelling in US records — 12 of the 19 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Nikola.
- How popular is the name Nicola in 2025?
- Nicola ranks #8362 among US girl names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nicola?
- About 1 in every 133,939 US girls born in 2025 was named Nicola — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nicola with classmates?
- Nicola will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nicola
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lona#8362 · Peggy#8362 · Leda#8362 · Margarette#8362 · Rella#8362 · Evalena#8362 · Vashti#8362 · Nona#8362
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nicola? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nicola and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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