Nicklas
Masculine · “Greek nikolaos”
In 1087 sailors from Bari stole the bones of St Nicholas from his tomb at Myra and carried them to Italy. Relic theft was a recognized medieval genre with its own literature, and the accounts always explain that the saint wanted to be moved.
How old is the name Nicklas?
Nicklas first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Nicklas alive today was born around 1998, making them about 27 years old. About 2,300 people named Nicklas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nicklas most popular?
Nicklas peaked in 1998, reaching #1133 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 8,581 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From nikolaos to Nicklas
The story of Nicklas
Myra, on the southern coast of Anatolia, held the tomb, and by the eleventh century the region was contested and poorly defended. In 1087 a party of merchants and sailors from Bari sailed there, forced their way into the church, took the bones and brought them home, where a basilica was built for them and remains one of the great pilgrimage churches of southern Italy. Venetian sailors claimed to have taken the remainder in 1100. Such episodes were common enough to have a name in modern scholarship, furta sacra, sacred theft, and they produced a whole body of narrative literature explaining that the saint had consented, wanted a better home, or actively helped. The relics made Bari a major pilgrimage destination and spread the cult across Western Europe, which is a large part of why the name became so widespread.
Meaning
Greek nikolaos, victory of the people
Nicklas is a Scandinavian and German form of Nicholas, from Greek Nikolaos, joining nike, victory, to laos, the people. The name spread through the cult of St Nicholas of Myra, a fourth-century bishop. The -las ending is the Nordic form; the -laus and -laos endings are German and Greek. The American peak is 1998.
How the name formed
- nikolaos
- Nicolaus
- Nicklas
Related forms: Niklas · Niklas · Nicholas
Pronouncing Nicklas
NIK-las
Two syllables, stress on the first. Swedish and German say the same. English Nicholas has three syllables and a different rhythm.
Nicknames for Nicklas
Moderate
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 2002111 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1133reached in 1998
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%7 in 2025, from 7
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.
Nicklas in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Niklas in Swedish — spelling variant
- Niklas in German — same name
- Nicholas in English — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Michigan.
Nicklass among us
people named Nicklas are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Nicklas
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nicklas
- #9714
- Nicklas on the 2025 chart
- #911
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nicklas went to 7 boys in 2025, but Niklas is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 17, which makes it the 911th most-given boys’ name of the year — 8,803 places above the chart.
- Niklas10
- Nicklas7
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 244,011 for Nicklas itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Viet test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nicklas's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Viet climbed just as high around 1982, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Viet's path sketches the road Nicklas is walking now.
Nicklas 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
Nicklas beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nicklas in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Nick and Klas are both established short forms.
- It is standard across Scandinavia and Germany.
- Two syllables with a firm first-syllable stress.
- Niklas without the c is the standard European spelling.
- Nicholas is far commoner in American use.
- The 1998 peak dates it to a narrow window.
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Nicklas
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nicklass are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Nicklas are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nicklas?
- Nicklas is one of 2 recorded spellings. Niklas is the more common one — 10 births in 2025 against 7 for Nicklas.
- How popular is the name Nicklas in 2025?
- Nicklas ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nicklas?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Nicklas — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nicklas with classmates?
- Nicklas will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nicklas
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nicklas? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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