Cole

187,989 people in the United States were counted with the surname Cole in the 2020 census, making it the 129th most common in the country. That is about one person in 1,590.

By the numbers

People: 187,989
Rank: 129th
How common: 1 in 1,590
Per 100,000: 62.9

Where the name comes from

The surname is variously from:.

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

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Cole described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 71.7%
Black, not Hispanic 19.1%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.5%
Hispanic or Latino 3.3%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Cole

Nat King Cole (1919–1965)American singer and jazz pianist
Ashley Cole (born 1980)English association football player
Natalie Cole (1950–2015)American singer
Joe Cole (born 1981)English association football player
Andy Cole (born 1971)English footballer
J. Cole (born 1985)American rapper and record producer
Thomas Cole (1801–1848)19th-century American painter
Carlton Cole (born 1983)English footballer

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

Surnames like Cole

Also a first name

Cole has been given to 154,646 American babies as a first name since 1886, peaking in 2002. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.