Find out how popular the last name Nichol is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Nichol.

Nichol, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Nichol surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Nichol in America

Nichol is the 9754th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Nichol surname appeared 3,323 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 1 people would have the surname Nichol.

We can also compare 2010 data for Nichol to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Nichol

The surname Nichol has its origins in the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It is derived from the Old English personal name "Nicol", which itself is derived from the Greek name "Nikolaos", meaning "victory of the people". The name Nichol is thought to have first appeared in England sometime around the 11th century, shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066.

The earliest known recorded instance of the name Nichol can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a comprehensive survey of landholdings and property ownership commissioned by William the Conqueror. It lists a person named "Nicol de Villers" as holding lands in Oxfordshire.

Over the centuries, the name Nichol has been spelled in various ways, including Nicholl, Nicoll, Nicolls, and Nickoll. These variations likely stem from differences in local dialects and the preferences of individual scribes who recorded the name.

One notable bearer of the name Nichol was Sir John Nichol (1590-1667), a Scottish judge and politician who served as Lord Advocate of Scotland during the reign of Charles I. Another was John Pringle Nichol (1804-1859), a Scottish astronomer and professor at the University of Glasgow.

In the United States, one of the earliest recorded instances of the name Nichol can be found in the records of the Virginia Company, which oversaw the settlement of the Virginia colony in the early 17th century. In 1623, a man named John Nichol is listed as having arrived in Virginia aboard the ship "Swanne".

Other notable individuals with the surname Nichol include John Nichol (1833-1894), a Scottish poet and journalist, and Donald Nichol (1923-1997), a British-American artist and writer who was known for his work in the fields of surrealism and abstract expressionism.

Overall, the surname Nichol has a rich history that spans multiple centuries and cultures, with its roots firmly planted in the Anglo-Saxon traditions of medieval England.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Nichol

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Nichol.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Nichol was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Nichol has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Nichol was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Nichol, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!