Humanverse

Nichole vs Nicolaus

American parents have registered 63,954 Nicholes since 1880, against 1,141 Nicolauses. Nichole is still ahead, with 46 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nichole against Nicolaus, 1880 to 2025 0 800 1.6k 2.4k 3.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nichole Nicolaus

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Nichole has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1942 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2023, when Nichole had 48 and Nicolaus had 9.

Side by side

  Nichole Nicolaus
Total US births 63,9541,141
Most in one year 2,96247
Babies in 2025 46under 5
Estimated living today 62,0001,100
Median age today 4130
Peak year 19851998
Best rank 95th girls2,012th boys
Rank in 2025 3,342ndunranked
First recorded 19421971
Girls / boys 63,770 / 1840 / 1,141

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Nicholes alive today are over 41; half the Nicolauses are over 30. That is 11 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Nichole and Nicolaus.