Nicole
Masculine · “victory of the people”
Nicole is given to girls far more often — 594,500 girls against 1,965 boys since 1880. See Nicole as a girl 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 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Nicole alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 1,800 people named Nicole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nicole most popular?
Nicole peaked in 1972, reaching #929 nationally. See the whole 1972 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
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
- 1961
- Most boys named
- 1989107 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #929reached in 1972
- Change vs 2013
- −37.5%5 in 2019, from 8
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
Nicoles among us
people named Nicole 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
Nicole 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
- 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
Masculine
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 1,800 people named Nicole are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nicole in 2025?
- Nicole is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Nicole with classmates?
- Nicole will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More N names
The most-given names starting with N, all years combined.
Nicholas#112 · Nathan#63 · Noah#2 · Nathaniel#140 · Norman#1196 · Nolan#65 · Neil#850 · Nicolas#177
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nicole? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nicole and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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