Nichole
Nichole was given to 46 girls in 2025, #3,372 among girls’ names; 63,954 Americans have been recorded with it since 1942 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 61,500 Americans named Nichole and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 42 years old and half are between 36 and 48.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Nichole by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Nichole mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Nichole is “a female given name from Ancient Greek, a less common spelling of Nicole.”
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Nichole?
#3,372 among girls’ names, 2025
Nichole fell from #1,827 in 2015 to #3,372 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 63.9 to 28.6 per million.
2,962 babies in 1985, the peak
Nichole peaked in 1985, when 2,962 babies were given it (2,950 girls, #95 among girls’ names). The 46 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 46 | #3,372 | 0.03 |
| 2024 | 47 | #3,374 | 0.03 |
| 2023 | 48 | #3,366 | 0.03 |
| 2022 | 45 | #3,519 | 0.03 |
| 2021 | 62 | #2,779 | 0.04 |
| 2020 | 52 | #3,085 | 0.03 |
| 2019 | 73 | #2,448 | 0.04 |
| 2018 | 70 | #2,527 | 0.04 |
| 2017 | 99 | #2,001 | 0.06 |
| 2016 | 117 | #1,784 | 0.07 |
Every recorded year (80)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 114 | #1,827 | 0.06 |
| 2014 | 141 | #1,550 | 0.08 |
| 2013 | 186 | #1,275 | 0.11 |
| 2012 | 162 | #1,415 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 164 | #1,400 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 175 | #1,346 | 0.10 |
| 2009 | 174 | #1,372 | 0.09 |
| 2008 | 241 | #1,085 | 0.13 |
| 2007 | 235 | #1,104 | 0.12 |
| 2006 | 273 | #959 | 0.14 |
| 2005 | 282 | #893 | 0.15 |
| 2004 | 337 | #770 | 0.18 |
| 2003 | 336 | #748 | 0.18 |
| 2002 | 390 | #648 | 0.22 |
| 2001 | 470 | #556 | 0.26 |
| 2000 | 545 | #495 | 0.30 |
| 1999 | 596 | #450 | 0.34 |
| 1998 | 620 | #427 | 0.35 |
| 1997 | 714 | #377 | 0.41 |
| 1996 | 783 | #354 | 0.45 |
| 1995 | 937 | #295 | 0.53 |
| 1994 | 1,260 | #224 | 0.71 |
| 1993 | 1,394 | #209 | 0.77 |
| 1992 | 1,581 | #192 | 0.86 |
| 1991 | 1,652 | #180 | 0.88 |
| 1990 | 1,992 | #151 | 1.0 |
| 1989 | 2,233 | #136 | 1.2 |
| 1988 | 2,497 | #115 | 1.4 |
| 1987 | 2,538 | #111 | 1.5 |
| 1986 | 2,652 | #105 | 1.5 |
| 1985 | 2,950 | #95 | 1.7 |
| 1984 | 2,806 | #97 | 1.7 |
| 1983 | 2,926 | #93 | 1.8 |
| 1982 | 2,923 | #99 | 1.7 |
| 1981 | 2,772 | #109 | 1.7 |
| 1980 | 2,938 | #102 | 1.8 |
| 1979 | 2,908 | #103 | 1.8 |
| 1978 | 2,511 | #116 | 1.6 |
| 1977 | 2,064 | #142 | 1.3 |
| 1976 | 1,768 | #148 | 1.2 |
| 1975 | 1,764 | #153 | 1.2 |
| 1974 | 1,687 | #161 | 1.1 |
| 1973 | 1,718 | #160 | 1.2 |
| 1972 | 1,943 | #146 | 1.3 |
| 1971 | 1,114 | #262 | 0.67 |
| 1970 | 1,042 | #283 | 0.60 |
| 1969 | 815 | #314 | 0.48 |
| 1968 | 195 | #696 | 0.12 |
| 1967 | 148 | #823 | 0.09 |
| 1966 | 135 | #863 | 0.08 |
| 1965 | 39 | #1,844 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 50 | #1,625 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 42 | #1,805 | 0.02 |
| 1962 | 32 | #2,103 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 15 | #3,427 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 15 | #3,315 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 12 | #3,762 | 0.01 |
| 1958 | 9 | #4,415 | under 0.01 |
| 1957 | 8 | #4,798 | under 0.01 |
| 1956 | 6 | #5,763 | under 0.01 |
| 1955 | 9 | #4,292 | under 0.01 |
| 1954 | 8 | #4,547 | under 0.01 |
| 1950 | 6 | #5,122 | under 0.01 |
| 1949 | 10 | #3,554 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 10 | #3,526 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 7 | #4,647 | under 0.01 |
| 1945 | 9 | #3,320 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 6 | #4,412 | under 0.01 |
| 1943 | 6 | #4,553 | under 0.01 |
| 1942 | 11 | #2,941 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Nichole a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Nichole has been given almost only to girls: 184 boys in 80 years of records.
Girls and boys named Nichole: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Nichole, and how old are they?
61,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 96% of the 63,954 Americans ever recorded as Nichole. The median Nichole alive today is 42 years old; half are between 36 and 48.
The 2020 Census counted 55,220 people named Nichole (55,094 women and girls, 126 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 61,841 born in the U.S. The Census count is 11% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 17 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 198 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 21,500 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 33,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,650 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,090 |
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 Nichole born?
The states with the most babies named Nichole are California, Michigan and Ohio, with 25% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 7,234 | #3,408 | 0.9× |
| Michigan | 3,984 | not ranked | 1.6× |
| Ohio | 3,946 | not ranked | 1.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 3,704 | not ranked | 1.2× |
| New York | 3,488 | not ranked | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 3,076 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Texas | 2,804 | #2,846 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 2,618 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Indiana | 1,852 | not ranked | 1.1× |
| Washington | 1,805 | not ranked | 1.5× |
Where Nichole is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Nichole is most over-represented in South Dakota: since 1942 it was given 1.6 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 girls’ 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 Nichole 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 5 names spelled alike, given to 72,997 babies since 1880, Nichole is the most given (88% of them). In 2025 it was given to 46 of their 54 babies (85%), again the 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 Nichole
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 Nichole and names like it
- Compare Nichole and NichelleBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sNichole peaked in 1985.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Nichole since 1910.
- The top names of 1985The year the most babies were named Nichole.
- The names of the MillennialsMost people named Nichole alive today were born 1981-1996.
- Names starting with NMost given first.