Nicolaus
Masculine · “Victory of the people”
Nicolaus keeps the Latin ending that Nicholas drops, and the h that Nicholas adds is not in the Greek. The original has a plain k sound written with a kappa; the h crept into the Latin spelling later, and this form is closer to the source in one respect and further in another.
How old is the name Nicolaus?
Nicolaus first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Nicolaus alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 1,100 people named Nicolaus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nicolaus most popular?
Nicolaus peaked in 1983, reaching #1822 nationally. See the whole 1983 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Nikolaos to Nicolaus
The story of Nicolaus
The best-known bearer of the Latin form published in the year he died and somebody sabotaged him on the way out. Copernicus had sat on his book for decades, knowing what it would cost him; when it finally went to press an editor added an unsigned preface saying that the moving earth was merely a mathematical device and need not be believed as physically true. Readers took it for the author's own view for the better part of a century. He is said to have been handed the printed book on the day he died. The preface's real author was identified by another astronomer who scratched out the offending words in his own copy.
Meaning
Victory of the people
Greek nike, victory, and laos, the people, so the name is a boast about a community rather than a person. It is one of the transparent Greek compounds. The -us ending marks the Latin nominative and was dropped by every language that inherited the name except Latin itself.
How the name formed
- Nikolaos
- Nicolaus
- Nicholas
Related forms: Nikolaus · Mikolaj · Nikolaos
Pronouncing Nicolaus
NIK-oh-lows
Three syllables with the stress at the front. The Latin ending is a full syllable rhyming with house; English speakers often reduce it to -us, which German and Polish speakers would not.
Nicknames for Nicolaus
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
- 1971
- Most boys named
- 199847 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1822reached in 1983
- Change vs 2020
- +50.0%9 in 2023, from 6
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.
Nicolaus in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nikolaus in German — same name
- Mikolaj in Polish — same name
- Nikolaos in Greek — transliteration
Nicolauss among us
people named Nicolaus are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Nicolaus sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The name is recognizable across German, Polish and Greek use with small changes.
- Nico, Klaus and Nick are three short forms in three quite different traditions.
- The meaning is transparent and can be given to a child in three words.
- Nicholas is the standard English form and this will be read as the German or Latin one.
- The final syllable is a real one, so the name has three where Nicholas has three too but sounds heavier.
- It is closely dated to the last decades of the twentieth century in American use.
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Nicolaus
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Nicolauss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Nicolaus are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nicolaus in 2025?
- Nicolaus is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Nicolaus with classmates?
- Nicolaus will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More N names
The most-given names starting with N, all years combined.
Nicholas#112 · Nathan#63 · Noah#2 · Nathaniel#140 · Norman#1196 · Nolan#65 · Neil#850 · Nicolas#177
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nicolaus? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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