Humanverse

Nicole vs Nicollette

American parents have registered 596,465 Nicoles since 1880, against 1,229 Nicollettes. Nicole is still ahead, with 803 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Nicole against Nicollette, 1880 to 2025 0 6k 12k 18k 24k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Nicole Nicollette

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

Nicole has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1937 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 2005, when Nicole had 5,005 and Nicollette had 46.

Side by side

  Nicole Nicollette
Total US births 596,4651,229
Most in one year 23,043143
Babies in 2025 803under 5
Estimated living today 576,0001,200
Median age today 3932
Peak year 19851991
Best rank 7th girls1,205th girls
Rank in 2025 382ndunranked
First recorded 19371967
Girls / boys 594,500 / 1,9651,229 / 0

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 Nicoles alive today are over 39; half the Nicollettes are over 32. That is 7 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: Nicole and Nicollette.