Nika
Feminine · “victory”
Nika is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 2,497 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Nika is short, sharp and claimed by several languages at once — Slavic families use it as a short form, Greek reads it as victory, and Persian has its own word. Four letters carrying three separate histories.
How old is the name Nika?
Nika first appears in US birth records in 1961 — 64 years ago. The typical Nika alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 2,500 people named Nika are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nika most popular?
Nika peaked in 2017, reaching #2357 nationally. Today it ranks #3167, 810 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Nika appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Veronika to Nika
The story of Nika
Slavic languages clip long names hard, and Veronika, Nikoleta and Domenika all yield Nika; in Slovenia and Croatia it has been a complete registered name for decades. The Greek word for victory reached those same languages through Christianity, so the two readings have never been fully separate. The Persian line is independent. What arrives in American records is therefore one spelling and several genuinely different names, and each family knows its own.
Meaningscholars disagree
victory
Greek nike is victory, and the word stands behind Nicholas, Veronica and Nike alike. In Russian, Slovene and Croatian, Nika is chiefly a short form of Veronika or of Nikoleta rather than a word in itself. Persian nik means good, and Nika is used in Iran on that reading.
How the name formed
- Veronika
- Nika
Related forms: Nika · Ника · Niki · Nika
Pronouncing Nika
NEE-kah
Two syllables, first stressed, with a long first vowel. Americans sometimes say NY-kah.
Nicknames for Nika
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
- 1961
- Most girls named
- 201975 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2357reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- −3.8%50 in 2025, from 52
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.
Nika in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Nika in Slovene — same name
- Ника in Russian — transliteration
- Niki in Greek — related form
- Nika in Persian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Florida, New York.
Nikas among us
people named Nika are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 32,145 born in 2025 was named Nika
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Nika
- #3167
- Nika on the 2025 chart
- #902
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Nika went to 50 girls in 2025, but Nica is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 58, which makes it the 902nd most-given girls’ name of the year — 2,265 places above the chart.
- Nika50
- Nica8
About 1 girl in 27,712 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 32,145 for Nika 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 Kerra test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nika's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kerra climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kerra's path sketches the road Nika is walking now.
Nika 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
Where Nika is headed
Nika should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Nika beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nika in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Four letters and two syllables, pronounceable in almost every language.
- It is a complete registered name in several European countries, not only a nickname.
- The Greek reading gives it a settled, concrete meaning to fall back on.
- Americans read it as the sportswear brand before anything else, and that will be said aloud.
- The first vowel is said two ways and the spelling does not settle it.
- Nika, Nyka and Neeka all appear in the records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Nika
Feminine · #3167 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nikas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,500 people named Nika are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Nika?
- Nika is the most-used spelling in US records — 50 of the 58 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Nica.
- How popular is the name Nika in 2025?
- Nika ranks #3167 among US girl names in 2025, with 50 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nika?
- About 1 in every 32,145 US girls born in 2025 was named Nika — 50 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nika with classmates?
- Nika will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nika
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lulu#3167 · Lucina#3167 · Irma#3167 · Leyna#3167 · Skylee#3167 · Amairani#3167 · Jorja#3167 · Jozie#3167
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nika? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nika and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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