Nicole
Feminine · “victory of the people”
Nicole is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 594,500 girls against 1,965 boys since 1880. See Nicole as a boy name
English usually makes its own feminines and with this name it did not. Nicola is the English formation and it has never been common in America; what Americans took instead was the French form, whole and unaltered, which is a fairly rare thing for English to do with a name it could easily have handled itself.
How old is the name Nicole?
Nicole first appears in US birth records in 1937 — 88 years ago. The typical Nicole alive today was born around 1985, making them about 40 years old. About 577,000 people named Nicole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nicole most popular?
Nicole peaked in 1982, reaching #6 nationally. Today it ranks #382, 376 places below that high. See the whole 1982 chart.
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Nicole
The story of Nicole
One name that looks entirely separate is a diminutive of this one. Colette is the French affectionate form — Nicolette shortened from the front, then shortened again — and it has been in independent use so long that almost nobody now connects the two. That is the ordinary fate of a diminutive that outlives its parent's fashion: it stops being heard as a small version of anything and becomes a name in its own right, and within a couple of generations the relationship has to be pointed out. English has done the same thing to Sally, Molly and Nancy, all of which were once transparently something else.
Meaning
victory of the people
Two Greek elements passed through Latin and French. The feminine ending is French and the sense travels through unchanged, since neither language alters the compound.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nicolas
- Nicole
Related forms: Nicole · Nicoletta · Nicole · Nicola
Pronouncing Nicole
ni-KOHL
Two syllables with the weight at the back, as French requires. The opening is unstressed and reduces almost to nothing.
Nicknames for Nicole
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
- 1937
- Most girls named
- 198522,966 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #6reached in 1982
- Change vs 2023
- −14.8%803 in 2025, from 942
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.
Nicole in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nicole in French — same name
- Nicoletta in Italian — related form
- Nicole in German — same name
- Nicola in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Nicoles among us
people named Nicole are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,002 born in 2025 was named Nicole
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nicole
- #382
- Nicole on the 2025 chart
- #346
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nicole went to 803 girls in 2025, but Nicolle and Nikole are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 886, which makes it the 346th most-given girls’ name of the year — 36 places above the chart.
About 1 girl in 1,814 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 2,002 for Nicole 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 Nancy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nicole's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nancy climbed just as high around 1950, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nancy's path sketches the road Nicole is walking now.
Nicole 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
Where Nicole is headed
Nicole should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Nicole beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nicole in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is a genuine French form rather than an English approximation.
- The stress at the back gives it a decisive finish.
- It is recognized across Europe without alteration.
- Its peak was very large and very concentrated, which dates the name clearly.
- Nichole and Nikole both appear and the spelling occasionally gets queried.
- The record holds a few boys as well, and the boy is much the smaller side.
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What they receive
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Nicole
Feminine · #382 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nicoles are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 577,000 people named Nicole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nicole?
- Nicole is the most-used spelling in US records — 803 of the 886 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Nicolle and Nikole.
- How popular is the name Nicole in 2025?
- Nicole ranks #382 among US girl names in 2025, with 803 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nicole?
- About 1 in every 2,002 US girls born in 2025 was named Nicole — 803 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nicole with classmates?
- Nicole will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nicole
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Giselle#382 · Demi#380 · Amari#380 · Blaire#384 · Laura#379 · Liana#385 · Kira#385 · Ivory#378
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nicole? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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