Colette is a French short form of Nicolette, the feminine of Nicolas, and so means "victory of the people", from the Greek nike and laos. The French novelist Colette, author of Gigi, gave the name its literary chic. In the United States Colette has been in the top 1000 since 2012, climbed from number 525 in 2015 to 316 in 2025 and has never ranked higher.