Nicholas
Feminine · “victory of the people”
Nicholas is given to boys far more often — 926,047 boys against 3,152 girls since 1880. See Nicholas as a boy name
Santa Claus is this name with the corners knocked off. Saint Nicholas became Sint Nikolaas in Dutch, Sinterklaas in speech, and Santa Claus in New York — three steps, all of them ordinary sound changes, from a fourth-century bishop of a town in what is now Turkey to a man in a red suit.
How old is the name Nicholas?
Nicholas first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Nicholas alive today was born around 1985, making them about 40 years old. About 2,900 people named Nicholas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nicholas most popular?
Nicholas peaked in 1985, reaching #957 nationally. Today it ranks #10917, 9,960 places below that high. See the whole 1985 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Nicholas
The story of Nicholas
Nicholas of Myra was a bishop in the fourth century, and almost nothing about his life is documented, which did not stop him becoming the patron saint of sailors, merchants, pawnbrokers, repentant thieves and children. The story that fixed him was the one about secretly providing dowries for three girls, and the secrecy is the part that survived: gifts left at night, from someone who does not want to be seen. The Dutch kept the feast, brought it to New Amsterdam, and English speakers took the name from them by ear. The name itself had a very long run in England on its own account, common enough by the Middle Ages that Nick and Old Nick both entered the language, the second of them as a name for the devil.
Meaning
victory of the people
Greek Nikolaos: nike, victory, with laos, the people. Nike was also the goddess of victory, and laos is the word behind laity and laypeople. The compound was an ordinary Greek name long before it belonged to any saint.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nicolaus
- Nicholas
Related forms: Nikolaos · Nikolai · Niccolo · Nicolaas · Nicolas · Miklos
Pronouncing Nicholas
NIK-uh-lus
Three syllables, stress on the first. Spanish and French put it on the last, nee-ko-LAS. Russian Nikolai has the weight at the end too. The h in the English spelling is silent and was added in medieval Latin.
Nicknames for Nicholas
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 1985162 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #957reached in 1985
- Change vs 2020
- +60.0%8 in 2025, from 5
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Nicholas in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nikolaos in Greek — same name
- Nikolai in Russian — same name
- Niccolo in Italian — same name
- Nicolaas in Dutch — same name
- Nicolas in Spanish — same name
- Miklos in Hungarian — same name
Nicholass among us
people named Nicholas are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 200,908 born in 2025 was named Nicholas
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Delinda test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nicholas's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Delinda climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Delinda's path sketches the road Nicholas is walking now.
Nicholas sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Nicholas beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nicholas in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Greek meaning with both elements traceable to ordinary words.
- The same name in a dozen European languages, usually recognizable on sight.
- Four short forms of genuinely different registers, one of which serves either child.
- Continuous documented use for more than fifteen hundred years.
- It is very widely used and has been for decades, so it carries no signal at all.
- The Santa Claus connection is unavoidable and children will discover it.
- Nicolas, Nikolas and Nickolas are all in use, so the spelling will be given often.
- The very few girls given this exact spelling will be read as boys on every form.
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What they receive
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Nicholas
Feminine · #10917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nicholass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,900 people named Nicholas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nicholas in 2025?
- Nicholas ranks #10917 among US girl names in 2025, with 8 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nicholas?
- About 1 in every 200,908 US girls born in 2025 was named Nicholas — 8 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nicholas with classmates?
- Nicholas will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nicholas
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Edythe#10917 · Tessie#10917 · Drusilla#10917 · Eugenie#10917 · Ivah#10917 · Karri#10917 · Claribel#10917 · Myrtle#10917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nicholas? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nicholas and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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