Cole is a boy's name of German origin meaning “swarthy, coal-black, charcoal.” In 2024 it was given to 2,219 boys in the United States.
Cole belongs to the German and English & American tradition. Its meaning — “swarthy, coal-black, charcoal” — is the sense carried by its German roots, and it is the meaning we verified against published sources for this page.
In the United States, Cole first appears in Social Security records in 1886. It climbed to its best-ever rank of #69 in 2002, and in 2024 2,219 babies received the name — 152,069 in total since 1880. Those are the official counts, not estimates.
More names from the German shelf:
Cole means “swarthy, coal-black, charcoal” in its German roots. We check every meaning against published sources before it appears here.
Cole is a boy name. In 2024, 2,219 babies received the name in the US.
Cole comes from the German and English & American tradition.
Cole first appears in US records in 1886. Its best-ever ranking was #69 in 2002, and 2,219 babies were given the name in 2024.
Cole is pronounced /kəʊl/ (IPA).
Meaning and origin for this page were checked against this source. US popularity figures are from the Social Security Administration's public baby-names data. If you spot an error, write to [email protected] — accuracy is the whole point of this site, and corrections are made fast.
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