The baby name Nico blends years of quiet popularity with peak 21st century style.
Thanks to Findley for suggesting Nico as our Baby Name of the Day.
WHAT DOES THE NAME NICO MEAN?
The baby name Nico is exactly what it sounds like: a shortened form of traditional Nicholas.
Nicholas from a Greek name. Nike means victory; laos, of the people. So Nicholas is “victory of the people,” a soaring kind of meaning.
Plenty of other names include the Nic sound, and various cultures shorten the name in all sorts of ways. Colin and Colette are Nic names, as are the more obvious Nicky and Nick, and the more obscure Nicodemus and Nicanor.
That list also includes Nico, heard in Dutch, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, as well as English, over the years.
A popular 4th century Saint Nicholas ensured the name was broadly popular across Europe.
NICO IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY
It’s tough to pin down precisely how popular the name Nico might’ve been.
We know of a few, like Dutch footballer Nico Buwalda or Italian crooner Nico Fidenco.
Most of them are, of course, nicknames, but we find the name Nico hiding in biographies. For example, author JM Barrie wrote Peter Pan early in the 1900s. Barrie took inspiration from real-life family friends. Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies raised five boys: George, Jack, Peter, Michael, and Nicholas. The youngest son answered to Nico.
NICHOLAS IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY
Various Nicholas names have been popular here and there. French feminine form Nicole topped the charts in France during the 1940s. Polish form Mikołaj cracked the Top Ten in Poland during the 2010s and remained there for a decade.
But in the English-speaking world, Nicholas and Nicole started to rise during the 1970s. Nicole became a Top Ten favorite for girls during the 1980s. It took Nicholas a little longer. By the 1990s, Nicholas had entered the US Top Ten for boys, remaining there into the early 2000s.
This was clearly Nico’s moment, and it emerged as an independent given name during the late 20th century, too.
Credit almost certainly goes to a soap opera. All My Children introducedcharacter Nico Kelly in 1987.
But it almost immediately became a potential unisex choice.
NICO AS A UNISEX NAME
Born in Germany in 1938, Christa Päffgen started out as a model. While working in Berlin, she adopted the nickname Nico, borrowed from Greek film director Nikos Papatakis – nickname Nico.
As Nico, her career took her to Paris and then New York, where she became part of the artist Andy Warhol’s creative circle during the 1960s. Warhol insisted she sing on The Velvet Underground’s debut album in 1967. The Velvet Underground & Nico makes all the Best-of/Most Influential albums list.
Nico continued to perform as a signer, and also an actress, until her death in 1988.
It cemented the idea that the baby name Nico might be unisex – at least potentially.
Other examples include:
- Actress Thandie Newton has daughters called Ripley and Nico, and Nico is said to be named after singer.
- Coldplay’sGuy Berryman has a daughter called Nico, as does the lead singer of Blind Melon, the late ShannonHoon.
- Short-lived television series Lipstick Jungle included a character named Nico, a high-powered magazine editor. Kim Raver played Nico Reilly.
- Indie singer-songwriter Neko Case is another female bearer of the name; in this case, it is her birth name.
NICO DI ANGELO
Naming in the 21st century looks a little different, and it opens the door for the baby name Nico in more than one way:
- We love names ending in -O. For boys that can mean classics like Theo and Leo, previously overlooked possibillities like Milo and Arlo, or all-new names like Cairo and Indigo. In addition, romance language forms of names, like Mateo, are now even more popular than conventional English equivalents.
- We’re much less concerned about names and gender. A generation of 90s babies grew up with girl Jordan and boy Jordan, along with Ryan, Taylor, Cameron, and more names. That’s opened the door for favorites like Rowan, River, Emerson, and Charlie to cross gender lines.
All of that said, the baby name Nico is also familiar to this generation thanks to a fictional male character. Readers first meet Niccolò di Angelo in the third novel, The Titan’s Curse. He’s the younger brother of Biana, and son of the god Hades – though it takes a while to figure that out.
In recent years, he’s headlined his own spin-off series, The Nico di Angelo Adventuries and the character is slated to appear on the third season of the successful Disney+ television adaptation.
HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME NICO?
The baby name Nico debuted in the US as a boy’s name in 1960 with six births, and as a girl’s name in 1967 with seven births.
Then long came the soap opera. Nico Kelly sent his character’s name into the US Top 1000 in 1988. By 1989, it reached #546.
The baby name Nico mellowed after that, remaining in the US Top 1000 but slowly declining in use.
By the year 2000, Nico ranked a rather chilly #843.
Except that’s the moment when name trends started to shift in Nico’s favor. Over the last 25 years, names like Luca, Theo, and Enzo have risen into the US Top 100. Nico fits right in.
As of 2024, the name has reached an all-time high of #213 for boys.
It’s also used in small numbers for girls. In 2024, the baby name Nico was given to 1,678 boys compared to just 35 girls. This name is solidly masculine in use, but still feels potentially unisex.
MODERN TWIST ON A CLASSIC
Something about the baby name Nico feels meant to be. It’s a cool, casual twist on an evergreen classic.
Either as a nickname or a given name, Nico straddles the line between traditional and modern. Nico is a brother for Luna, an alternative to Leo.
If that’s the kind of versatility and adaptability that you’re after, then Nico might be the perfect name for your family.
What do you think of the baby name Nico?
First published on January 18, 2012, this post was revised on January 19, 2026.
The name NICO was introduced in 1979 THROUGH 1989 by a Internationally Famous Child Singer, who was the first Elvis Presley Imitator. His name is Nico Princely. He had a record on Bill Board called Love as Good as Gold. STORIES EMERGED INTERNATIONALLY magazines, Enquirer and show biz Variety etc. As a child, he did not want to continue in show biz, so his parents did not encourage it. NICO PRINCELY was the first public introduction of the name NICO, which is derived from NICOLAS, A GREEK, ITALIAN FAMILY NAME.
Hi, Informer – that’s interesting, and Nico may have helped boost the name. But it was already in use in the US as a formal given name as early as 1960. So there’s an awful lot to the story of Nico. Thanks for adding another piece!
I’m a big fan of the musician nico, so only ever known it as a female name. I love it as a female name!
Im a guy and i have a unisex name. My middle name
Is nichole. Has anyone else met a guy named nichole?
Nico’s great — I prefer it to any of the longer forms. I’m also torn on the “C” vs. “K” debate — it just depends on the name it’s paired with. It helps that every Nico/Niko I’ve ever met has been totally adorable.
I have always liked Nico. Very cool, suave name!
I’m just inferring this from conversations with older Germans about ambiguous names, so take this with a grain of salt. Germany requires gender-specific names, so I’m guessing the singer started using the gender bending name because of her nihilist/avant-garde persona. It’s a bit like Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper, a name meant to be shocking.
I really like Nicolai, nicknamed Nico. It’s very charming.
I’m so excited that you featured Nico today! We will be bringing our adopted son Nikolai, whom we are calling Niko, home from Bulgaria in about two weeks. Reading all about his name today brought a smile to my face 🙂 I have never been a huge fan of the Nic- names to be honest, but I first came across Nico on a baby name message board about six years ago, and it has really grown on my since then. When we learned our son’s name, we wanted both to keep it as is (since he is nearly six and his name is already such a part of him), and also to give him a spunky nickname that would fit with the style of our girls’ names. Niko fit the bill perfectly. I wrestled (lengthily!) with the c vs. k issue, but ultimately we landed on the side of preserving the integrity of the name as it is spelled in cyrrilic (now to teach him that his name no longer starts with “H”…)
Congratulations and good luck Jodi! I adore Nikolai it’s a fabulous name.
Oh Jodi – congratulations! How wonderful for you and your family. And oh my goodness, a boy with five sisters! That sounds just fabulous.
Congratulations Jodi – how exciting for you! Nikolai is a gorgeous name too.
Congratulations Jodi!! And I love Niko for Nikolai, it really does fit with your daughters names 🙂