Humanverse

Nicole vs Nikkole

American parents have registered 596,465 Nicoles since 1880, against 840 Nikkoles. Nicole is still ahead, with 803 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Nicole Nikkole

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 2011, when Nicole had 2,660 and Nikkole had 11.

Side by side

  Nicole Nikkole
Total US births 596,465840
Most in one year 23,04345
Babies in 2025 803under 5
Estimated living today 576,000810
Median age today 3936
Peak year 19851990
Best rank 7th girls2,600th girls
Rank in 2025 382ndunranked
First recorded 19371969
Girls / boys 594,500 / 1,965840 / 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 Nikkoles are over 36. That is 3 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 Nikkole.