Nicola

Where Nicola comes from

A feminine version of Nicholas, first used in the 20th century.
— Wiktionary's entry for Nicola
  • Ancient Greek
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1920
    First appearance
    #4,975 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1970
    Nicola Sturgeon born
    First Minister of Scotland from 2014 to 2023
  3. 1971
    Nicola Rizzoli born
    Italian football referee
  4. 1972
    Peak, #760
    183 babies named Nicola — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1984
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,459.
  6. 2017
    Mostly boys from here
    Until now more girls than boys got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A female given name from Ancient Greek.
Namesakes
  • Nicola Sturgeon · First Minister of Scotland from 2014 to 2023, born 1970
  • Nicola Rizzoli · Italian football referee, born 1971
  • Nicola Peltz · American actress, born 1995
  • Nicola Pisano · Italian sculptor and architect, 1225–1284
  • Nicola Abbagnano · Italian existential philosopher, 1901–1990

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.