Nicole
A feminine name of French origin meaning "victorious people".
Name Census estimates that about 560,135 living Americans carry the first name Nicole. It sits at #318 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Nicole today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Nicole births was 1985 (23,044 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Nicole. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Nicole with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Nicole is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,965 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1980s, recent registration numbers for Nicole have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
560K
~ 1 in 612 Americans
Peak year
1985
23,044 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2019 SSA rank
#318
Tracked since 1937
Census
Nicole in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 544,074 people with the first name Nicole, which placed it at #78 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#78
National first-name rank
People counted
544K
544,074 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
180.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Nicole
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nicole is White at 70.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.3%) and Black (9.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Nicole described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Nicole at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.0% · 381,091
- Hispanic or Latino13.3% · 72,178
- Black or African American9.7% · 52,997
- Two or more races3.9% · 21,352
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 13,415
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3,041
Gender
Gender distribution for Nicole
Out of the 595,656 babies given the name Nicole since 1880, 99.7% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Nicole as a male name
- Ranked #13,544 in 2019
- 5 male births in 2019
- Peak: 1989 (107 births)
Nicole as a female name
- Ranked #318 in 2024
- 961 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1985 (22,967 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nicole appears almost entirely female. Of the 544,076 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Nicole: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Nicole from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 211,320 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Nicole by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Nicole during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Nicoles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Nicole, while Wyoming, Alaska, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11,625 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Nicole
The name Nicole is derived from the Greek name Nikolaos, which is a combination of the words "nikos" meaning "victory" and "laos" meaning "people". It was originally a masculine name, but over time, it transitioned into a feminine name.
Nicole's roots can be traced back to the 3rd century BC, when it was a common name among Greeks. The name gained popularity in the Christian tradition, as it was borne by several saints, including Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop known for his generosity and gift-giving.
In the Middle Ages, the name Nicole was prevalent in France, where it was often spelled as "Nichole". During the Renaissance period, it became a popular name among the French nobility. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Nicole is Nicole de Lorraine, a 15th-century French noblewoman and the mother of René II, Duke of Lorraine.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Nicole. One of the most famous is Nicole de La Vallière, a 17th-century French courtier and mistress of King Louis XIV of France. Another prominent figure is Nicole Oresme, a 14th-century French philosopher, mathematician, and translator.
In literature, the name Nicole has been immortalized in works such as Gérard de Nerval's 19th-century novella "Sylvie" and Marcel Proust's monumental novel "In Search of Lost Time", where one of the main characters is named Nicole de Stermaria.
Other notable individuals with the name Nicole include Nicole de Savigny (1535-1590), a French poet and translator; Nicole Reine Lepaute (1723-1788), a French astronomer and mathematician; and Nicole Aidah Kidman (born 1967), an Academy Award-winning Australian actress.
The name Nicole has maintained its popularity throughout the centuries, transcending cultural and linguistic boundaries, and has become a beloved name in many parts of the world.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Nicole
People
Nicole + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Nicole as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with N
Other first names starting with N with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Nicole: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Nicole?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 560,135 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Nicole going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 612 US residents.
Is Nicole a common name?
We classify Nicole as "Very Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 595,656 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Nicole most popular?
The single biggest year for Nicole was 1985, when 23,044 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Nicole is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Nicole in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 544,074 people with the name Nicole, or 180.14 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #78 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Nicole in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Nicole?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Nicole appears almost entirely female. Of the 544,076 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Nicole?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Nicole is White at 70.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.3%) and Black (9.7%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Nicole most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Nicole in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.0% (381,091 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Nicole in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Nicole a female name?
Yes, 99.7% of people registered as Nicole in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Nicole still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Nicole in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Nicole can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Nicole?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.