Kole
Kole was given to 160 boys in 2025, #1,247 among boys’ names; 9,855 Americans have been recorded with it since 1969 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,700 Americans named Kole and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 10 and 24.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Kole by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Kole mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Kole is “a male given name.”
The surname is an anglicization of German Kohl. The given name is a modern spelling variant of Cole.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Kole?
#1,247 among boys’ names, 2025
Kole fell from #762 in 2015 to #1,247 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.16 to 0.09 per 1,000.
433 babies in 2009, the peak
Kole peaked in 2009, when 433 boys were given it, #598 among boys’ names. The 165 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 38% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 160 | #1,247 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 171 | #1,200 | 0.10 |
| 2023 | 226 | #971 | 0.13 |
| 2022 | 217 | #1,023 | 0.12 |
| 2021 | 272 | #859 | 0.16 |
| 2020 | 267 | #855 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 279 | #816 | 0.16 |
| 2018 | 301 | #771 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 310 | #759 | 0.17 |
| 2016 | 293 | #798 | 0.15 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 313 | #762 | 0.16 |
| 2014 | 288 | #799 | 0.15 |
| 2013 | 323 | #724 | 0.17 |
| 2012 | 331 | #715 | 0.17 |
| 2011 | 353 | #669 | 0.19 |
| 2010 | 428 | #587 | 0.22 |
| 2009 | 433 | #598 | 0.22 |
| 2008 | 363 | #667 | 0.18 |
| 2007 | 382 | #636 | 0.18 |
| 2006 | 352 | #655 | 0.17 |
| 2005 | 376 | #601 | 0.19 |
| 2004 | 335 | #632 | 0.17 |
| 2003 | 323 | #638 | 0.16 |
| 2002 | 327 | #613 | 0.17 |
| 2001 | 289 | #647 | 0.15 |
| 2000 | 258 | #685 | 0.13 |
| 1999 | 255 | #666 | 0.13 |
| 1998 | 215 | #749 | 0.11 |
| 1997 | 202 | #743 | 0.11 |
| 1996 | 155 | #880 | 0.08 |
| 1995 | 160 | #855 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 138 | #935 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 124 | #967 | 0.06 |
| 1992 | 105 | #1,069 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 67 | #1,386 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 56 | #1,519 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 32 | #2,174 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 39 | #1,779 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 33 | #1,916 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 33 | #1,861 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 36 | #1,711 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 38 | #1,592 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 31 | #1,801 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 21 | #2,383 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 9 | #4,349 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 10 | #4,001 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 12 | #3,463 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #6,071 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 12 | #3,045 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 6 | #4,830 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 11 | #3,068 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #5,312 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,732 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Kole a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Kole has been given almost only to boys: 70 girls in 53 years of records.
Girls and boys named Kole: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Kole, and how old are they?
9,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 9,855 Americans ever recorded as Kole. The median Kole alive today is 17 years old; half are between 10 and 24.
The 2020 Census counted 7,923 people named Kole (111 women and girls, 7,812 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 8,484 born in the U.S. The Census count is 7% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 59 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,030 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,160 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,440 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Kole born?
The states with the most babies named Kole are Texas, Florida and California, with 46% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 19 | #1,153 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 14 | #985 | 0.6× |
| California | 12 | #1,480 | 0.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 9 | #882 | 1.1× |
| Michigan | 8 | #877 | 1.3× |
| New York | 6 | #1,667 | 0.5× |
| Indiana | 5 | #1,029 | 1.8× |
| Illinois | 5 | #1,402 | 0.9× |
| Missouri | 5 | #941 | 1.5× |
| Iowa | 5 | #632 | 2.2× |
Where Kole is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Kole is most over-represented in Iowa: since 1969 it was given 2.2 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Kole with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 6 names spelled alike, given to 167,752 babies since 1880, Kole is the second most given (5.9% of them). In 2025 it was given to 165 of their 2,189 babies (7.5%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Kole
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Kole and names like it
- Compare Kole and ColeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sKole peaked in 2009.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Kole since 1910.
- The top names of 2009The year the most babies were named Kole.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Kole alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with KMost given first.