Fun Facts About the Name Coco
- More than 1 thousand babies named Coco: U.S. records list 1,879 babies given the name Coco from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Coco Mean?
Coco is less a name with one ancient root than a common word that became a name. In Spanish and Portuguese, coco is the ordinary word for coconut; in French, coco means the same fruit informally and also serves as an affectionate term for a child, a sweetheart, or a friend. For that reason the name is often glossed simply as "coconut," but in most uses it works as a pet name or nickname rather than a word carrying a fixed definition.
The word behind the fruit has its own history. Portuguese coco is often said to come from an older term for a grinning face or a bogeyman, because the three dark holes at one end of a coconut shell resemble a face; this explanation is widely repeated but not fully settled. The same word lies behind el Coco, the bogeyman of Spanish and Latin American folklore (also called el Cucuy), a shadowy figure invoked to warn children. Which sense - fruit, bogeyman, or French term of endearment - came first in any given region is unclear.
As a given name, Coco is usually a shortened or familiar form of something longer. It commonly stands in for Colette and Nicole in French, for Socorro in Mexico, and for Corinne or Constance in English. Because it comes from a common word rather than a saint's name or a classical root, it has no single literal translation of the kind found in names like John or Jacob.
Coco Name History & Origins
English use of Coco came mainly through French, where coco had long served as a nursery word and term of endearment. In France it was used as a familiar name and nickname before it became at all common in English-speaking countries.
The fashion designer Gabrielle Chanel was known as Coco from her years as a young cabaret singer; the nickname is usually traced to a song in her act, "Qui qu'a vu Coco?", though Chanel gave varying accounts of it over the years. The Russian-born circus clown Nicolai Poliakoff performed for decades in Britain under the stage name Coco the Clown, which he adopted in the 1920s.
In the Spanish-speaking world, Coco is used as a familiar form of Socorro and of other names beginning with co-, and less often as a given name on its own. It is also the name of the folkloric bogeyman el Coco. In the United States the name has appeared more often as a nickname than as a formal given name, as with the tennis player Cori "Coco" Gauff and the baseball player Covelli "Coco" Crisp.
The 2017 animated film Coco takes its title from the family nickname of its young main character's great-grandmother, whose given name is Socorro. That is a well-known recent use of the name, not its origin.
How Popular is the Name Coco?
Coco has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2020. Its best rank was #1,851 in 2020.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | #2,334 | 78 | 0.0049% |
| 2024 | #2,384 | 76 | 0.0047% |
| 2023 | #2,378 | 76 | 0.0047% |
| 2022 | #2,108 | 91 | 0.0056% |
| 2021 | #2,046 | 94 | 0.0057% |
| 2020 | #1,851 | 105 | 0.0065% |
| 2019 | #2,203 | 84 | 0.0050% |
| 2018 | #2,717 | 63 | 0.0037% |
| 2017 | #3,058 | 53 | 0.0031% |
| 2016 | #2,836 | 60 | 0.0034% |
| 2015 | #2,239 | 84 | 0.0047% |
| 2014 | #3,119 | 53 | 0.0030% |
| 2013 | #2,845 | 60 | 0.0034% |
| 2012 | #2,500 | 73 | 0.0041% |
| 2011 | #2,487 | 73 | 0.0042% |
| 2010 | #2,479 | 75 | 0.0042% |
| 2009 | #2,208 | 89 | 0.0048% |
| 2008 | #2,726 | 67 | 0.0035% |
| 2007 | #2,759 | 66 | 0.0034% |
| 2006 | #2,857 | 61 | 0.0032% |
| 2005 | #3,176 | 49 | 0.0027% |
| 2004 | #4,188 | 33 | 0.0018% |
| 2003 | #6,955 | 16 | 0.0009% |
| 2002 | #5,949 | 19 | 0.0011% |
| 2001 | #5,862 | 19 | 0.0011% |
| 2000 | #5,757 | 19 | 0.0010% |
| 1999 | #7,332 | 13 | 0.0007% |
| 1998 | #5,626 | 18 | 0.0010% |
| 1997 | #7,877 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 1996 | #7,237 | 12 | 0.0007% |
| 1995 | #6,023 | 15 | 0.0009% |
| 1994 | #8,264 | 10 | 0.0006% |
| 1993 | #12,107 | 6 | 0.0003% |
| 1992 | #13,730 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1991 | #9,520 | 8 | 0.0004% |
| 1990 | #7,412 | 11 | 0.0006% |
| 1989 | #6,625 | 12 | 0.0007% |
| 1988 | #5,969 | 13 | 0.0007% |
| 1987 | #11,662 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1986 | #7,898 | 8 | 0.0005% |
| 1985 | #8,523 | 7 | 0.0004% |
| 1984 | #5,002 | 14 | 0.0008% |
| 1983 | #2,673 | 33 | 0.0020% |
| 1982 | #3,805 | 21 | 0.0012% |
| 1977 | #9,910 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1976 | #8,356 | 6 | 0.0004% |
| 1974 | #9,030 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 1972 | #8,505 | 5 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
