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Chico

Boys' name

Diminutive of Francisco

Chico has been given to 951 babies in the U.S. since 1922. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1977, with 56 recorded.

Babies named Chico, 2020

1 in 477,000

Chico over time, 1880–2025

Boys
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Chico: meaning, origin, and history

Diminutive of Francisco

Portuguese

What Chico means

Chico is a diminutive of Francisco.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Chico is used in Portuguese.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈʃi.ku/ for Chico.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Chico → Francisco → Francis. The family’s meaning is “French(man)”, recorded in English with the source elements Franciscus.

Origin, language, and formation

Chico is used in English and Portuguese. Its origins include Portuguese.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Francisco.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Portuguese, Chico is pronounced /ˈʃi.ku/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 951 boys were recorded with the name Chico between 1922 and 2020. Its highest annual count was 56 in 1977; its best national rank was #1,179 in 1977.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Chico?

Chico had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2020, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2020
1 in 477,000
7 of 3,342,313 births
Among boys only
1 in 247,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2020
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
330,960 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Chico sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2020 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 330,960 children born in 2020 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Chico. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Chicos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Chico was born before 1977 — so the typical Chico is around 48 today.

Median birth year
1977
About 48 years old
Biggest decade
1970s
33.6% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
15.0%
Spread across generations
Recorded since 1950
893
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1970s — 33.6% of all recorded uses (320).

Is Chico rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1977 (56)
Years since peak
48
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
38.5% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,179
1977

Spellings of Chico

Chico is not the most common spelling — Nico is, with 28.3% against Chico's 1.3%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Chico is used

Across 1910–2025, Chico was most concentrated in South Carolina — about 1 in 100,000 boys, against 1 in 526,899 across all states with data. It was least common in North Carolina (1 in —).

01 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1South Carolina1 in 100,000
  2. 2Alabama1 in —
  3. 3California1 in —
  4. 4Kentucky1 in —
  5. 5Mississippi1 in —
  6. 6North Carolina1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Chico has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Chico around the world

Where Chico ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2013–2025
    #5,137
    in 2025
  • France
    1996–2011
    #5,655
    in 2011

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0.

Chico by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,179
1977
Peak year
1977
56 that year
First recorded
1922
Last recorded
2020
All-time count
951
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Chico

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

ChiefChikeChiChipChisomChipperChineduChiragChimaChironChidiChidubemJericoChinoMonicoYeicoChicagoEnricoChingChickAmericoMicoChibuezeChin

Sibling names for Chico

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Chico

Top names of 1977, Chico's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1977Boys' names starting with CFrancis Variations & NicknamesShort Portuguese Boy Names