Nikita
Feminine · “unconquered”
Nikita is given to both — 10,778 girls and 2,890 boys since 1880. See Nikita as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Nikita is a man's name in Russia and a woman's name almost everywhere else. The Greek behind it means unconquered, and the shift of sex happened entirely outside the Slavic world.
How old is the name Nikita?
Nikita first appears in US birth records in 1949 — 76 years ago. The typical Nikita alive today was born around 1989, making them about 36 years old. About 10,500 people named Nikita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Nikita most popular?
Nikita peaked in 1986, reaching #250 nationally. Today it ranks #4460, 4,210 places below that high. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From aniketos to Nikita
The story of Nikita
Nikita entered Russian through the Greek church and was an ordinary man's name there for a thousand years. Its use for women is a Western development: the name reached English-speaking countries through Russian public figures and then through fiction and film, where its ending — which reads as feminine in every Romance and English ear — did the rest. American feminine use rose in the late 1980s and peaked in the mid-1990s.
Meaning
unconquered
From the Greek aniketos — the negative a- and niketos, 'conquered', from nike, 'victory'. So the name is literally 'not conquered'. It was a Greek masculine name and passed into Russian as Nikita, where it remains firmly masculine.
How the name formed
- aniketos
- Niketas
- Nikita
Related forms: Никита · Niketas · Nakita
Pronouncing Nikita
nih-KEE-tuh
Three syllables, stress in the middle. Russian says it the same way, with a slightly sharper final vowel.
Nicknames for Nikita
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
- 1949
- Most girls named
- 19861,034 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #250reached in 1986
- Change vs 2024
- −3.1%31 in 2025, from 32
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.
Nikita in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Никита in Russian — transliteration
- Niketas in Greek — related form
- Nakita in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Pennsylvania, Florida.
Nikitas among us
people named Nikita are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 51,847 born in 2025 was named Nikita
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 Cathleen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Nikita's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Cathleen climbed just as high around 1956, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Cathleen's path sketches the road Nikita is walking now.
Nikita 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 Nikita is headed
Nikita is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Nikita beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Nikita in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent, undisputed and unusually strong.
- Nikki is a ready-made short form with a life of its own.
- Three syllables with a strong middle, a rhythm that carries well.
- In Russia and the Slavic world the name is unambiguously masculine.
- It carries strong Cold War associations for older generations.
- It is closely dated to the 1990s in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Nikita to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Nikita
Feminine · #4460 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Nikitas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 10,500 people named Nikita are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Nikita in 2025?
- Nikita ranks #4460 among US girl names in 2025, with 31 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Nikita?
- About 1 in every 51,847 US girls born in 2025 was named Nikita — 31 in all.
- Will my child share the name Nikita with classmates?
- Nikita will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Nikita
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jayce#4460 · Magali#4460 · Emari#4460 · Rilyn#4460 · Danyla#4460 · Lynleigh#4460 · Khloee#4460 · Mandy#4460
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Nikita? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Nikita and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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