Humanverse

Nicole vs Nycole

American parents have registered 596,465 Nicoles since 1880, against 944 Nycoles. Nicole is still ahead, with 803 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

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

Nicole Nycole

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 Nycole had 10.

Side by side

  Nicole Nycole
Total US births 596,465944
Most in one year 23,04336
Babies in 2025 803under 5
Estimated living today 576,000920
Median age today 3937
Peak year 19851980
Best rank 7th girls2,603rd girls
Rank in 2025 382ndunranked
First recorded 19371968
Girls / boys 594,500 / 1,965944 / 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 Nycoles are over 37. That is 2 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 Nycole.