Cole
Meaning of Cole
Cole, a brisk one-syllable choice pronounced “kohl,” began life as an English surname drawn from the Old English cola, “charcoal or coal-black,” a meaning that lends the name a quiet, smoldering strength; in medieval parish rolls it also served as a familiar form of Nicholas, so one might say it stands at the confluence of soot and saintliness. From colonial ledgers in Virginia to the Tin Pan Alley sheet music of Cole Porter—and, more recently, to the credits of actors Cole Sprouse and Cole Hauser—the name has threaded itself through Anglo-American culture with understated confidence, seldom flashy yet hard to extinguish. Its popularity curve in the United States resembles a banked ember: after glowing hottest in the early 2000s when it hovered around rank 70, it has cooled to the mid-150s today, but still emits steady warmth, with more than two thousand newborns annually carrying the torch. Parents drawn to Cole often cite its paradoxical mix of brevity and depth, its faint whiff of nursery-rhyme nostalgia (“Old King Cole”), and, for the dry-witted, the chance to tell relatives that—come Christmas—the child already has his coal.
Pronunciation
American English
- Pronunced as KOHL (/koʊl/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Cole
| Cole Beasley is an American NFL wide receiver who played at SMU, made the Cowboys as a 2012 undrafted free agent, later spent three seasons with the Bills and a stint with the Buccaneers, retired in 2022, then returned to Buffalo. |
| Cole Sprouse is an American actor best known for playing Cody Martin on The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Jughead Jones on Riverdale, having started out acting with his twin Dylan in Big Daddy. |
| Cole Younger - Thomas Coleman Younger was a Confederate guerrilla during the Civil War and later an outlaw leader with the James-Younger Gang alongside his brothers Jim, John and Bob. |
| Cole Swindell - Colden Rainey Swindell is an American country singer-songwriter who has written for stars like Luke Bryan and scored eight number one country hits among 13 singles, including Chillin It, You Should Be Here, Flatliner, Never Say Never, and She Had Me At Heads Carolina. |
| Cole Bennett is an American music video director and record executive who founded Lyrical Lemonade, created standout videos for artists like Juice Wrld and Eminem, and released the album All Is Yellow in 2024. |
