Humanverse

Nichola

Nichola is a girl's name that peaked in 1969, when it was the 1,927th most popular in the United States. It has not appeared in the national data since 2010. About 910 Nicholas are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 47.

Popularity, 1880–2025

Births per year, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

girls named Nichola boys named Nichola

Girls and boys called Nichola

Share of the name given to girls, 1880 to 2025 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

years more girls than boys years more boys than girls

Both, throughout, without either side ever taking it over: 864 girls and 127 boys in all, and in 1989 the split was 15 to 13.

The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 17 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.

By the numbers

Total US births
991
Estimated living today
910
Median age today
47
Peak year
1969
Best rank
1,927th
Rank in 2025
unranked
First recorded
1942
Girls / boys
864 / 127

How old the living Nicholas are

Born with the name each year, and how many of them are alive today, 1880 to 2025 0 13 25 38 50 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

born that year still alive today

Of the 991 babies given the name since 1942, about 910 are alive — 91 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1978 and half after.

An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.

Where the name comes from

Origin Ancient Greek

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Notable Nicholas

People named Nichola with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Where Nichola is most common

Relative to how many babies each state records, Nichola is most concentrated in California (8.1×).

Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.

Names of 1969

The most popular girls’ names the year Nichola peaked:

All the names of 1969

Nichola elsewhere

CountrySpelling BirthsBest rank
Scotland girls Nichola 766 110th
Ireland girls Nichola 718 140th
England and Wales girls Nichola 207 582nd
Northern Ireland girls Nichola 15 220th

Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.

Related names

Nichola against another name

Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.

Compare Nichola with a name of your own

Try it on yourself

Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.