Given name & surname
Chico
“a boy; a lad”
Chico is used as a given name and a surname. One Spanish interpretation is “a boy; a lad.”
Original SpanishFrancisco
Meaning & origin
What it means
One Spanish interpretation is “a boy; a lad.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Spanish.
How it developed
In Portuguese usage, Chico is a diminutive of Francisco.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1922. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Chico through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 951
- 951 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1977
- 56 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 7 in 2020. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 56 in 1977. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 1,291 as a first name in 2020; 3,018 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Chico’s family of names
In Portuguese usage, Chico is a diminutive of Francisco. In Portuguese usage, Chico has a conventional equivalent in the German form Frank.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Chico has relatives in 4 languages. Lines run from its Spanish roots to each of them.
Spanishwhere Chico comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 1
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 3
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
See also 2
Names our sources mention alongside this one. They are related in story or meaning, not forms of this name.
People named Chico
- Chico BuarqueBrazilian singer-songwriterborn 1944
- Chico MarxAmerican comedian (1887–1961)
- Chico MendesBrazilian trade union leader and environmentalist (1944–1988)
- ChicoBrazilian footballer (1922-1997)
- Chico SerraBrazilian racing driverborn 1957
- Chico HamiltonAmerican musician (1921–2013)
- Chico Landiracecar driver1907–1989
- Chico Xavierspiritualist and philanthropist from Brazil (1910-2002)
- Chico AnysioBrazilian actor and comedian (1931–2012)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
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