Kola

surname · Hindi · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Kola is a surname, most frequently recorded in Argentina. In the Czechia it is the 66th most common given name. It appears chiefly in Hindi and Telugu, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: A tree, genus Cola, bearing large brown seeds ("nuts") that are the source of cola extract.

rarermore common
  • CZCzechia1 in 135◐
  • HUHungary1 in 303
  • SISlovenia1 in 482

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈593K ●

across 14 countries

#572 ●

of 16M given names

9 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
350 ●

2.1M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 135 ◐

Czechia

Spellings & scripts●

ClaraLatin · Portuguese●1.7M records
КлараCyrillic · Russian●171K records
קלרהHebrew · Hebrew●72K records
ᲙლარაGeorgian · Georgian●3.8K records
โขลาThai · Thai●117 records
ΚλαραGreek · Greek●46 records
കൊലMalayalam · Malayalam●0 records
కోలTelugu · Telugu●0 records
칼라Hangul · Korean●0 records

5 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Clara in BR Brazil, AR Argentina, ES Spain and 10 more, Klara in HU Hungary, CZ Czechia, PL Poland and 4 more, Клара in RU Russia, KZ Kazakhstan, UA Ukraine and 1 more and Kali in IN India, ID Indonesia, MY Malaysia.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

A tree, genus Cola, bearing large brown seeds ("nuts") that are the source of cola extract.

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Kola is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
AR Argentina#231619,657378K rec.—2.3KClara141
IN India—405,514774K rec.—13KKali184
MX Mexico#258186,110166K rec.—615Clara186
RU Russia#254140,31733K rec.—#113Клара131
PE Peru#251127,658105K rec.——Clara65
BR Brazil#302126,36284K rec.1 in 1.7K126KClara193
US United States—109,086183K rec.1 in 3K109KClara350
FR France—100,530△360 rec.1 in 675101K—5
CZ Czechia#6679,200△2.1K rec.1 in 13579KKlara125
VE Venezuela#38764,96830K rec.——Clara58
CL Chile#23561,4433.4K rec.—188Clara86
ES Spain#16450,09356K rec.1 in 99850KClara192

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • Hindi58K51%
  • Telugu13K11%
  • English12K11%
  • Swahili5.6K5%
  • 4.2K4%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
Hindi58,31851%
Telugu12,68811%
English12,22811%
Swahili5,5845%
4,1544%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Kola is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English surname29K records spelled Kola16 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Nigeria, United States, India, South Africa

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Köla, Kôlâ, Kölå, Kõlã, Kóla

  • a separate surname9.2K records spelled Kola3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Ethiopia, Nigeria

    Also written Kọ́lá, Kolá

  • Turkish surname3.4K records spelled Kola3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Türkiye, India, Nigeria, United States

    Also written Kolã

  • Albanian surname3.0K records spelled Kola2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Albania, Italy, United States, United Kingdom

    Also written Kòlà

  • Finnish surname2.9K records spelled Kola4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Finland, India, United States, Italy

    Languages: Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Kõla, Kuola

  • French surname2.8K records spelled Kola6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Côte d’Ivoire, Belgium, United States

    Languages: French, Catalan

    Also written Kolą, Kôla, Kölä, Kolā

54 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Kola is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • hog; embrace; a weapon.

    as a nameThe Penguin book of Hindu names for boys

  • Snail.

    as a nameThe African book of names

  • In lua, used with maluvu to mean to be drunk, be intoxicated.

    as a wordGrammar and Dictionary of the Buluba-Lulua Language

  • In umb, be great; strong, solid, firm ; be unfortunate (too bad). *jtola, v. s., be wrong; be sacred. *Kolisd) v. a., intensify

    as a wordVocabulary of the Umbundu Language

  • In men, v., to utter, to speak. Used with nde, as inde golaa. Kolani, plu. clothes

    as a wordVocabulary of the Mende Language

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

01020301920194019601980200024 · 1972

Show as table
Kola in naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls), India, 1916–2015
Yearrecords
19161
19181
19201
19221
19251
19261
19274
19282
19293
19305
19314
19323
19333
19344
19353
19364
19374
19385
193910
19406
19418
19427
19435
19444
194511
194615
19478
194813
19499
19508
19519
19527
195315
195415
195510
195616
19578
195819
195911
196017
196120
196221
196318
196419
196518
196618
196718
196821
196919
197023
197118
197224
197314
197419
197522
197616
197720
197817
197912
198012
198116
198215
198316
19847
198511
198610
198711
198813
198910
19907
19916
199210
199310
19948
19957
19962
19975
19982
19991
20001
20101
20112
20131
20142
20151

IN naampy — India given names from state electoral rolls (in-rolls) — 85 years between 1916–2015. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1400160018002000Barbara Kola, b. 1450József Kola, b. 1900Anja Kola, b. 1929Andrzej Kola, b. 1940Agustin Kola, b. 1959Jukka Kola, b. 1960Caroline Kola, b. 1966Rodgers Kola, b. 1989Bahadir Khan Kola, b. 1995

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 40 sources across 23 countries.

Official registers attesting Kola
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames (clean spellings) from electoral rolls—13K#843
IN IndiaInstate — India surnames by state (real counts) from electoral rolls—13K#128
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020201.1K#24,280
FI FinlandDVV — Nimipalvelu (Finnish name service, per-name lookup)—654#5,446
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20102010611#36,585
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 20002000337#56,687
FI FinlandDVV — Sukunimitilasto (Finnish surnames register)—315—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020228#28,490
CI Côte d’Ivoirenomprenoms.ci — ranked Ivorian surname frequencies—190#2,207
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)2024135#8,684
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—102#7,084
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202087#28,490

Reference works 2

  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 261 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Kola?
We estimate roughly 593 thousand people bear Kola (counting its spellings and scripts) across 14 countries in our records.
In which country does Kola have the most bearers?
Kola is most frequently recorded in Argentina, where it is most often spelled clara.
Where is Kola most common?
Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Kola is densest in the Czechia — about 1 in 135 people — even though Argentina holds more of our records for it.
How common is Kola compared with other names?
In Argentina, Kola is the 231st most common given name of 517,176 given names recorded there.
What does the name Kola mean?
Recorded meaning: A tree, genus Cola, bearing large brown seeds ("nuts") that are the source of cola extract.
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/kola

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Kola” — the 231st most common given name in Argentina. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Kola parses inside a full name →